Counterblood
by LightPhyre
Summary: Yui Komori runs an emergency department with an amazing staff, but when she receives and treats a gunshot victim named Ayato, who's anatomy is unlike any human she ever seen, her world is turned upside-down. The supernatural begins to clash with Yui's love for science and medicine, all as she begins to fall in love with a (reluctantly) bonded vampire... Yui x Ayato, Rated M, A/U
1. Chapter 1

****COUNTERBLOOD****

… ** **.…****

Chapter One

….

The Ruby Emergency Department of the Vino Heritage Medical Center was a state-of-the-art facility thanks to a generous donation from the town of Manhattan. Open for just a year and a half now, the forty-thousand-square-foot complex was built specifically for the nasty stuff. There were twelve treatment bays, six on each half of the building. Emergency patients were admitted through the A or B track, and they stay with whichever team had been assigned to them in the beginning until they were released, admitted or sent to the morgue.

Running down the center of the facility was what the medical staff called "the passage"—short for the passage to Heaven or Hell. The passage was strictly for trauma admits, who were either flown in from a rescue-copter on the rooftop, or bused in by an ambulance. Anyone who came by helicopter tended to be more of the hard-core type. The copters went out at about a hundred and fifty mile radius around Manhattan, and even once shipped in some people who were involved in an unfortunate shark attack in the middle of the ocean. For those types of patients, there was a large elevator that came out right at the end of the passage. It was big enough to fit two gurneys and ten medical personnel at one time.

The trauma facility also had six open patient bays, each with X-ray and ultrasound equipment, oxygen feeds, medical supplies and plenty of space to move around. The operational hub was smack in the middle of the trauma facility, a conclave of humming computers and personnel that was, tragically, always busy. At any given hour there were at least one admitting physician, four residents and six nurses standing in the area, with typically two or three patients in-house.

Manhattan was a big city, with a lot of gang violence, drug-related shootings and car accidents, among many other things. Plus, with over six millions residents in the city, there was an endless variation of human miscalculation—nail guns going off into a man's stomach because he wanted to fix the button on his jeans; and arrow through a cranium because someone wanted to show off their aiming skills; a stay-at-home-dad figured it would be helpful for his wife to come home to a home-cooked meal and ends up frying himself and one of his kids.

Yui Komori lived in the passage, and many would say that she owned it. As chief of the Trauma Division, she was administratively responsible for everything that went down in those six bays. She was also trained as both an ED attending and a trauma surgeon, so she was hands-on. On a day-to-day basis, she made calls about who needed to go up one floor to the ORs, and a lot of times she scrubbed in to do the needle-and-thread stuff, too.

The ambulance had called about ten minutes ago, saying that they had a gunshot victim incoming for her. She'd been reviewing the charts of two more patients currently being treated, and finally decided to put them down. She looked over the shoulders of a few residents and nurses in the operational hub as they worked.

Every member of the trauma team was handpicked by Yui, and when recruiting, she didn't necessarily go for the Ivy Leaguer types, although she had graduated from Harvard herself. What she looked for were the qualities of a good soldier—someone with smarts, stamina and the ability to mentally detach from a situation. That was the most important quality. She knew better than anyone that you had to be able to stay tight in a crisis.

But that didn't mean that compassion wasn't mission-critical in everything that they did there. In fact, many people would argue with her about that, but she believed it to be true above anything else. If there was anything she couldn't forget about, it was the compassion she had for her patients and their loved ones. Being humble and sympathetic was very important to Yui, and she made sure that all members of her team had it.

Generally, though, most patients didn't need hand-holding or reassurance. They tended to be either drugged up or so shocked from spurting blood or a detached body part in a freezer bag that they didn't really notice any compassion. But what they did need were levelheaded people on the medical and business ends of the paddle.

The families and loved ones, however, needed kindness and sympathy always, and reassurance when that was possible. Lives were either destroyed or resurrected every single day in the passage, and it wasn't just the people who stopped breathing or started again. The waiting rooms were always filled with people who were affected as well—husbands, wives, parents, children.

Yui knew exactly what it was like to lose someone who was a part of you, and as she went about her clinical work she was very aware of the human side of all the medicine and technology in the facility. She made sure all her people were on the same page as her regarding that—you needed the battlefield mentality __and__ the bedside manners. She also believed that it was important to take time to hold someone's hand or offer a shoulder to cry on, because in a second, the roles could be reversed. Tragedy didn't discriminate. Everyone was subject to the whims of fate. And as far as she was concerned, everyone was equal. Everyone was loved by someone, somewhere, even in ways you don't expect. And always doing her best to save every life was critical.

Jun, one of the nurses, came up to her as she continued waiting for her gunshot victim. "Dr. Chiharu just called out sick, Dr. Komori," she said.

"Did he get that flu that was going around?"

"Yes, but he got Dr. Izanami to cover."

"Bless Chiharu's heart. She need anything?"

Jun smiled. "She said her husband was thrilled to have her home when he was awake for once. He was making her chicken soup last I heard."

"Good. She needed some time off anyway."

"Yeah. She said she was going to ask him to watch some girly movies with her."

Yui laughed. "You sure that won't make her sicker? Oh, listen, I wanted to do grand rounds on the Haru case. There was nothing else we could have done for him, but I think we need to go over the death anyway."

"I actually had a feeling you'd want to do that. I set it up for you the day before yesterday." Yui gave the nurse's hand a little squeeze.

"You're great. Thanks."

"No, I just know our boss, is all." Jun smiled. "You never let them go without checking and rechecking in case something could have been done differently."

And Jun was right. Yui could remember every name of every patient that died over the past year and a half under her care. The deceased catalog was all in her mind, and it was a reminded every time she went in to save someone. Sometimes, at night when she couldn't sleep, the names and faces would run through her head until she thought she would go mad. She hated failing like that—having someone's life in her hands and not being able to save them was her least favorite fear.

On the other hand, it was the ultimate motivator to be better and better every day, and right now, she'd be damned if this gunshot victim was going on that list.

Yui went over to one of the monitors and called up the information on her incoming patient. Just from a glance she knew that this one was going to be a battle. She was looking at a stab wound as well as a bullet in his chest cavity. And given where he'd been found, she was willing to bet that he was either a drug dealer doing business in the wrong territory or a big buyer who'd gotten the shaft. Either way, she thought it was unlikely that he had health insurance, not that it mattered to her. Ruby ED accepted all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. She wouldn't have agree to work anywhere with lesser standards.

About a minute and a half later, the double doors at the front of the passage swung open and the crisis team came in in a rush and a loud chatter. Mr. Ayato Sagamaki was strapped to a gurney, a tall, athletically-built man in what looked to be some kind of a uniform. He was younger than Yui was expecting. The paramedic at his head was bagging him, while another one held the equipment down and pulled.

"Bay three," Yui told the EMTs, rushing over. "Where are we?"

The guy bagging said, "Two large-bore IVs in with lactated ringers. BP is sixty over forty and falling. Heart rate is in the one-forties. Respiration is forty. Orally intubated. V-fibbed on the way over. Shocked him at two hundred joules. No response. Sinus tachycardia in the one-forties."

In bay three, the medics stopped the gurney and braked it while the passage's staff coalesced. One nurse took a seat at a small table to start recording everything. Two others were on standby to give the supplies at Yui's direction, and a fourth got ready to cut off the patient's clothes. A pair of residents hovered to watch or help as needed.

"I got the wallet," the paramedic said, handing it over to the nurse with the pair a scissors.

"Ayato Sagamaki, age… I think this ID is fabricated. The birth date says he's over a hundred years old. The picture is blurry, but… it could be him, assuming he dyed his hair purple after it was taken."

She handed the wallet over tot he colleague who was taking notes and then started to remove the patient's clothes. The shirt was easy, but she needed the scissors to cut the pants down the side and peel them off.

"I'll see if he's in the system," the other woman reported as she logged onto a computer. "Found him—wait, this isn't right, either… Must be an error. No, the name and address is the same, the age is still wrong, though."

Yui cursed under her breath. "Are we still having problems with the new electronics record system? We can't trust the information on there right now. I need a blood type and a chest X-ray asap."

While blood was being drawn, Yui did her best to analyze the situation. Her preliminary exam didn't reveal much—the gunshot wound was a tidy hole with only a rivulet of blood coming out. The knife wound was much the same—there wasn't much externally. She hoped his intestines hadn't been nicked with the blade.

She glanced down the rest of his body, noticing his pale, flawless skin. If he was involved in some drug business, he must have been quite new at it with no visible scars or marks. Not even a single tattoo. And he couldn't have been over thirty.

"Let me see the X-ray. And I want an ultrasound on his heart—"

To her left, the nurse who had been removing his clothes yelped and jumped back. The side of her hand was bleeding and she was holding it against her chest.

"I just went to check his teeth for minerals and… he bit me. His teeth felt like knives..."

For a split second everyone froze.

"Back in the game!" Yui clipped. "You, get out of here and get your hand treated. I want someone on that ultrasound, pronto! Where's the X-ray?"

Her commands snapped the staff back into attention as the nurse left the room, still holding her hand. One of the residents followed her to help.

The chest X-ray came out relatively fine, but for some reason the ultrasound of the heart was in poor quality. Both, however showed exactly what Yui had been expecting—pericardial tamponade from a right ventricular gunshot wound—Blood had leaked into the pericardial sack and was compressing the patient's heart, compromising it's function and causing it to pump poorly.

"We need an ultrasound of his abdomen for that knife wound while I buy us some time with his heart." Yui figured that the knife could be more serious than the gunshot if the blade had hit anything traumatic. "And as soon as that's done, I want both machines check. Some of these chest images have an echo."

As a resident went to work on the patient's belly with the ultrasound wand, Yui took a twenty-one-gauge spinal needle and plugged it into a fifty-cc syringe. After a nurse Betadined the man's chest, Yui pierced his skin and navigated the bone anatomy, breaching the pericardial sack and drawing out forty ccs of blood to ease the pericardial tamponade. Meanwhile, she gave out orders to prepare OR three upstairs and get the cardiac bypass team on the ready.

She gave the syringe to a nurse for disposal. "Let's see the abdominal."

The machine was definitely misbehaving. The images weren't clear at all. They did, however, show some good news, which Yui confirmed as she palpated the region. No major internal organs seemed to have been hit by anything.

"Okay, his abdomen looks fine. Let's move his upstairs."

n her way out of the passage, she poked her head into the room with the other nurse and looked at the resident. "How's she doing?"

"I don't know what she hit, but whatever it was burned her hand, and she just blacked out."

"Blacked out? And nothing burned her. She was cut by something. She said it was the teeth."

"I don't know what she hit. Our patient's out cold. He wasn't biting anybody, and a simple bite wouldn't have done something like this."

"Well, keep me updated. Take care of her."

"Of course."

Yui caught up with the patient as the staff wheeled him down the passage and into the elevator. One floor up she put on her scrubs while the nurses got him onto her table. At her request, a cardio-thoracic surgical kit and heart/lung bypass machine had been set up for her. The ultrasounds and X-rays had also been put up on a computer screen for her to see while she worked.

With gloves on both hands, held away from herself, she looked over the chest scans again. It was strange, having the images being so subpar—they were very grainy and with that echo, but there was enough to orient herself. The bullet was still inside him, lodged in the muscles in his back, and she was going to leave it there for now. The risks inherent in removing it were greater than leaving it alone for now.

She frowned and leaned closer to the screen. The bullet was interesting, to say the least. It looked like a little round ball, instead of the usual oblong shape she was used to seeing. And she couldn't tell if it was lead or not.

Yui approached the table where the patient was now hooked up to the anesthesia machines. His chest had been prepped, the regions around it draped in surgical cloth. The orange wash of Betadine made him look like he had a bad fake tan.

"No bypass. I don't want to use the time for that. Tell me how much blood we have for him on hand."

One of the nurses spoke up on her left. "The reading on the samples we took came back unidentifiable, but we have seven liters of O."

"His blood didn't type?"

"No, Doctor."

Yui frowned. "Okay, then. Let's do this."

Using a laser scalpel, she made an incision down the patient's chest, then sawed through the sternum and used a rib spreader to pull open the heart's iron bars.

Yui almost lost her breath. "Holy…"

"Shit," someone finished.

"Suction." When there was a pause, she looked up at her assisting nurse. "Suction, now! I don't care what it looks like. I can fix it, but I need a clear shot at the damned thing."

There was a hissing sound as the nurse removed the blood, and Yui got a good look at a physical anomaly she'd never seen before—this man had a six-chambered heart. That "echo" she'd seen in the pictures was actually an extra pair of chambers.

"Pictures!" she called out. "Make it quick, please!"

As photographs were taken she shook her head in disbelief. The Cardiology Department was going to have a field day over this. She'd never seen anything like it before—although the hole that was now torn through the right ventricle was totally familiar. She'd seen a lot of gunshot wounds in her relatively short time in this business.

"Suture," she said when the photographs were all taken.

Her assisting nurse slapped a pair of grips into her open palm, the stainless steel instrument carrying a curved needle with a black thread clipped onto the end. With her left hand, Yui reached in behind the heart, plugged the back end of the hole with her finger and stitched the front impact site closed. Next move was to lift the heart out of its pericardial sac and dot he same underneath.

Total elapsed time was under five minutes. Then she released the spreader, put the rib cage back where it was supposed to be, and used stainless steel wire to close the two halves of the sternum together. Just as she was about to staple him from his diaphragm to his collarbone, the anesthesiologist spoke up and machines started to beep.

"BP is sixty over forty and dropping fast."

Yui called out the heart failure protocol and leaned down to the patient's head. "Don't even think about it," she said softly, "You're not going to die here. Not while I'm taking care of you."

From out of nowhere, and against all medical fact, the man's eyes blinked open and focused on her.

Yui jerked back. God… his eyes were a bright yellow-green, and shined like a full moon on a cloudless, winter night. And for the first time in her life, she was stunned into immobility. In that moment, with their locked stares, it was as if they were linked, body to body, twisted and intertwined, indivisible—

"He's V-fibbing again," the anesthesiologist barked at her.

Yui snapped back to attention.

"You stay with me," she said to the patient. "You hear me? __You stay with me__."

She could have sworn the man nodded at her before his lids shut. And she got back to work saving his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

…

A couple of hours later, Yui pushed open the double doors to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, her pack swung over her shoulder and ready to finally go home. She held her car keys and checked the time. It was almost five in the morning, but she wasn't about to leave without checking in on her patient first.

She headed over tot he nursing station and the woman behind the counter looked up at her. "Hey, Dr. Komori. Come to check on your admit?"

"Yea. You know me. I can't leave them alone. What room did you give him?"

"Number two. I sent a nurse in there a couple minutes ago just to make sure he's comfortable."

"See why I love you guys?" Yui smiled. "Best SICU staff in all of NYC. By the way, has anyone come to see him? Did we find any next of kin?"

"I called the number on his medical record. The guy who answered said he doesn't live at that address and doesn't know anyone by the name Ayato anyway. So the information seems to be falsified. Oh, and did you see the weapon they found on him? A thin sword. Talk about weird."

As the nurse rolled her eyes, the two of them said at the same time, "Definitely drug-related."

Yui shook her head. "I'm not surprised. I knew that was it from the moment I got the call."

"He doesn't look the part though, if you ask me."

Yui just nodded. That was true, at least. She waved and headed down the corridor. Number two was all the way in the back, on the right. She took some time to check on a couple other patients she'd worked on tonight before she reached her destination.

SICU rooms were twenty by twenty square feet of boring. Each one was glass-fronted with a tan curtain to pull for privacy. They weren't the kind of rooms with windows or televisions or posters. If you were well enough to care about what your room looked like or what was on TV, then you didn't belong here.

"Good evening, Dr. Komori," a nurse said, standing over the patient's bed, checking his IV.

"How are you?" Yui asked formally. She didn't recognize this nurse and she wasn't wearing a name tag. Yui set her bag onto the floor and grabbed the medical record in the sleeve on the back of the door.

"I'm fine, thank you. And before you ask, he's perfectly stable, which is a miracle if you ask me."

Yui flipped through the more recent stats. "No kidding." It looked almost as if he was completely normal now, despite the fact that he was still passed out on the bed.

Yui was about to leave when she noticed a strange number on the corner of one of the last pages in the records. She flipped to it and frowned. There was a handwritten hospital record from almost sixty years ago. Obviously it had been reprinted, but that was strange. It was for the same man. She assumed that before computer logging became a thing in the medical field, most people had to hand write the records. And it must have just been a mistake. She flipped the files closed and put them back on the door.

"We need to get better precision from that transcription service," she said offhandedly. "Nobody can tell me how old this guy is." The nurse just shrugged and went back to writing stats on her clipboard for a moment before smiling and walking out, probably in a hurry to go home for the night.

When the nurse was gone, Yui stepped over to the side of the bed and pulled the privacy curtain into place. The patient's respiration was strictly machine-driven right now and his oxygen levels were acceptable. Blood pressure was steady, but low, and his heart rate was sluggish, which she knew was better than too fast, but she couldn't help but think about his heart, and how he had six chambers beating. She hardly knew what was a good average heart rate for that.

She leaned over him and studied his facial features. He looked so young like this, almost as if he was in his early-twenties. He was handsome, too, not that it mattered. She moved in closer to look at his skin. There were no splotches or red marks. He was still flawless and pale. She looked at the tube inserted in his mouth and noticed something odd. With her thumb, she pushed his upper lip back. His canines were very pronounced, and shockingly sharp. Was this what the nurse had hit? They looked sharp enough. But what about the burns and the blacking out? That still didn't make sense.

Assuming they were cosmetic—people did such strange things to their bodies—she moved on. She lifted the thin blanket that covered him and inspected the wound dressing on his chest. It looked fine, so she worked her way down his body, pushing the covers off as she went. The stab wound's dressing was also fine, but she palpated his abdomen just to be safe. She gently pushed, feeling around to make sure his internal organs were still intact, and when she was finished, she paused, focusing slightly on his groin. She wasn't sure why she cared about it—she'd seen hundreds of naked men in this business already. She'd even done surgery on multiple penises, and she knew she'd seen pretty much everything. They were nothing new to her, and she'd grown out of her discomfort with seeing a naked body a long time ago.

She stared at his face as she covered him back up. On impulse she put her had on his forearm and squeezed a little. "You're going to be just fine."

"When I get home and I've had a couple shots, maybe."

Yui whirled around. "Jesus, Misaki, you scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry, just wanted to check in." The manager of the facility went around the other side of the bed, his eyes scanning the patient. "I heard you were pretty amazing tonight."

"I just do my part. I couldn't save anyone without my team," Yui replied.

"Yea, I know. But I doubt he would have lived under anyone else's care."

"Did you see the pictures?"

"Of his heart? Yea. Pretty amazing stuff. I've never seen anything like it, either."

"And his blood wouldn't type."

"No?"

Yui shook her head.

"If we can get his consent, I think we should do a full workup on him, down to the chromosomes. It was amazing, holding his heart in my hands… To be able to see something like that. To work with it, hands-on was just… amazing."

"You like your job a little too much, Yui."

She frowned. Misaki was always a bit of an asshole.

"Okay, well I'm ready to go home—"

"Wait, I wanted to ask you something..."

….

Ayato didn't know what hit him. All he remembered was getting attacked after looking for his uncle in the back parts of the city. It had to have been an ambush. They drained his blood and attacked him with weapons made specifically to kill people like him. He knew he'd woken up somewhere, and there had been a young woman with him, telling him to do something.

His whole body hurt. How he survived after that knife had hit his stomach was beyond him. His flesh and bones felt like they didn't belong on his body anymore. He wanted to rip everything off. He wanted to scratch his skin until it tore. But he couldn't move. He felt like he was on fire. His eyes were shut so tight it felt like he'd been crying cement, and his hearing and sense of smell seemed to be the only things working properly at the moment.

He could tell there was a conversation going on above him, and there were two voices—one was male and the other was female. He recognized the female's voice—she'd been the one helping him. He listened to her talk without hearing any of the words. Her speech was quiet and calm—very submissive, but she knew how to hold authority at the same time.

And then it hit him. She was a human. He was in a human hospital, under human care. Jesus… did they look at his insides? Were they confounded by what they found? Shit, what had happened to him?

Panic ran through him, but his body was a sack of meat. He felt a tube down his throat and assumed a machine was working his lungs. That also meant he was probably heavily sedated.

His panic came to a complete halt as a new surge of instincts fired up within him, taking control. But it wasn't the monster in him coming out—he knew he needed blood but it wasn't the first thing on his mind. They were the possessive male impulses of a bonded vampire, the ones he'd heard about from his uncle and his father. And the trigger for it was a scent in the room—the scent of a male who wanted sex… with the female, with the woman who had told him to stay with her.

He didn't know how or why, but his rage made his eyes crack open. He saw both of them. She was a small, fragile human, with bouncy blonde hair down to her shoulders and a white shirt and blue jeans on. Her scent was intoxicating to him, and he knew it had to be his thirst for blood coming out now.

The other human was much taller, and he stood over the female like he had a point to make. Ayato wanted to growl, but he couldn't make a sound.

"Misaki, this is crazy," the female said, and Ayato looked back to the male. He was in a lab coat with a name tag on the right of the lapel.

"What's crazy about it?" The mans voice was deep and demanding, and his eyes were way to focused on the female… _his_ female. She'd helped him. She'd probably saved his life. She was _his_ human now. "It's just dinner."

"You're my boss," the female said lightly. "I don't date people from work anyway."

"What about that promotion I heard you talking to Nona about the other day. I could talk to the higher ups for you, if you wanted me to."

"I… don't think that would be a good idea."

"I know you want it. Just go on a quick date with me. It can't hurt. We don't even have to go out. You can come to my place."

Ayato was seething. He could feel his female's discomfort and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't help her. He couldn't scare off the sex-driven male. He was a useless sac of meat.

"I really don't think it's a good idea. But thank you—"

"You don't have to decide right now. I'll give you until tomorrow."

"No, I've given you my answer. I really don't want to—"

"Just sleep on it. I'm sure you'll change your mind by tonight."

"I..."

She sounded embarrassed and he hated it. Clearly, she had no physical attraction to this human. The only reaction he got out of her was discomfort, and Ayato wanted to rip his head from his neck. He probably would have, too, if he could move.

"So you'll think about it?"

"It?"

"Us."

Ayato's upper lip pulled up off his fangs involuntarily and if his throat wasn't so dry, the growl that came out would have been much louder.

"I… I don't know."

"That's not a no, is it?" There was a pause. "Is it, Yui?"

 _Yui_ … so that was her name. It almost calmed him just to hear it. Almost.

"No… it isn't."

"Good." The human male glanced down and Ayato locked eyes with him dangerously, his fangs still slightly bared. The male was surprised and took a step back. "Looks like someone's awake," he muttered, heading for the door. "Jesus. What's with those teeth? Aesthetics?" And he left without another word.

…..

Yui looked down at her patient, his eyes open just slightly, showing her that brilliant yellow-green.

"Hey," she whispered with a smile. "You didn't hear all that, did you? I'm sorry, we should have left the room." Her smile was sheepish. "You're really amazing, you know that? A bunch of my staff are calling your recovery a miracle. And that heart of yours… I would really like to run some scans when you're feeling a little bit better, but that can wait, of course." Her eyes dropped. She shouldn't be bringing up all this right now. It was just the stuff with her boss, and how astounded she was by this man… She needed to go home and get some rest.

The man's lips twitched, as if he was trying to speak. Yui just kept her smile and shook her head.

"It's all right. You can talk when you're ready. Get some rest and I'll be back later tonight."

At that, the man's eyes really opened and he locked eyes with her, as if in panic. Yui blinked a few times in confusion.

"What the matter?" she asked, jumping and going to check the IV drip. It was still working, but maybe he was in pain. She set it to a heavier dose and turned back to her patient. His eyes were on the IV now, and the same panic was in his eyes. "It will make the pain manageable," she added softly, trying not to rouse him up anymore than he already was. "I'll come visit you when I get back. There are nurses outside all the time, so if you need something, just hit the button. Here," she said, placing the small contraption in his one hand. "Please try and get as much rest as you can." She placed her hand on his forearm and squeezed. The man's eyes drooped again and then shut.

Yui sighed, picked up her bag, and headed for the exit.

…..

It felt like the day dragged on forever, but eventually he heard someone say that the night shift should be coming in in a few minutes. He'd been hooked up to some machines and tubes that let him go to the bathroom in his bed and he felt like an old man. These were human things. If only he could get the drugs to stop flowing, his immortal body would heal itself up in no time. He didn't know what the female had done to help him, but she'd managed to counter the affects of vampire-killing weapons, which was quite the feat for a human. She must have taken the bullet out of him and sealed up whatever wounds it made in his chest. She also must have closed up the knife wound, because his body wouldn't know how to heal itself without some help after getting hit by one of _those_ knives.

But if she stitched everything back together, his body should be able to heal itself, but not while he was on these drugs. At this rate it would take too long. He would be in here as if he was actually a human, and he wasn't that frail. He also wasn't that patient.

He wondered if his brothers were looking for him. Probably not. But his uncle might be. If no one brought him the body, those hunters were probably out searching for him right now. He was worried that they would look in this building for him. It wasn't that he cared about the humans, but if his female was going to be arriving any minute now, he could barely open his mouth, much less defend her from a group of vampire hunters.

He was also starting to feel the blood lust, and he wondered if he would've already fed on the humans around him if he could move. Probably…

The scent of blood was faint in here. He figured it would be stronger with all the injured humans being rushed in, but the place was well-kept and clean.

A sound at his door had his full attention. Was it her?

He felt his anger rise when he recognized the male from before—the male that wanted to mate with his female. He strolled in, a clipboard under one arm and a pen in the opposite hand. He looked up and they locked eyes.

"Awake, are we? How did we sleep today?" the man asked, and Ayato wanted to snarl, but he couldn't get the sound out of his throat. It stayed there are almost choked him. He just narrowed his eyes. "Calm down. I'm just here to take your vitals." He walked over and checked some of the screens of the machines he was hooked up to. "Oh, very good," he said to himself, clicking his tongue. "We'll just give you a little more of this and Doctor Komori should be in to see you when she gets her uniform on."

So his female was here after all? Was that what she was referred to as here? Doctor Komori… Yui… He like the sound of her name in his thoughts. He wanted to hear what they would sound like on his tongue.

"I just wanted to run some scans before she gets here. That's one hell of a heart you have. Did you know that? And I had the nurses run your blood type again and it still comes back as unidentifiable. It's almost like you're not human," the man laughed. Ayato's eyes stayed narrowed. He wanted to feed on this bastard first. He wanted to suck him dry. He wanted to show him that he was far from human.

Then he realized that this male was turning up the amount on the IV. He was drugging him even more, and there was nothing he could do about it. Instinctively, he hit the little button in his hand for the first time. A few moments later, an unfamiliar face poked into the room and asked if everything was okay. The male just nodded and smiled and the other human left without a word.

Well, that was useless…

"What was that about?"

Ayato's senses perked up at the sound of her voice.

"I don't know," the male shrugged.

His female was beside his bed in a few moments and she placed her bag down.

"You hit this?" she asked, taking the button from his palm like she was taking a toy away from a child. Again, he wished he could snarl. But then his female turned to the male with her hands on her hips. "Why are you bothering my patient?" she asked heatedly.

"I was just taking down his vitals," he replied arrogantly, holding up the clipboard for her to see. "Jesus. It's always about the patients with you. And I expect an answer from you before the night is over," he muttered before leaving the room.

His female turned to him. "Why did you hit that? Did something happen?"

Ayato immediately put his eyes on the IV drip and Yui followed his gaze. She took a step towards the machine and looked at it.

"He turned it up?" she asked. "He wasn't giving you anything close to regulation's maximum, though. It's a normal dose. I'm sure he was just trying to help."

Ayato managed to part his lips and let out a small breath. His female smiled at him. "You'll heal up in no time." He kept his eyes on the IV and tried to widen them to make a point, but she wasn't getting the memo. He gritted his teeth and managed to let out a groan. His female jumped a little and reached for the IV again.

"N..." he managed to force out, and then he was out of breath from the effort.

"No?" his female asked, her eyes filled with concern. "Are you in pain?"

"N..." Same as before, it took everything he had just to make one simple noise.

"All right." Her voice came out soothing, and his breathing evened out a bit. "Can I get you anything? Water? Food? Are you feeling nauseous or dizzy or anything like that?"

He managed to shake his head, and then looked back over at the IV. His female frowned at him. "All that does is help with the pain. If you're no in pain, it does nothing."

"O..." Ayato squeezed his eyes shut, irritated with how difficult this was. "Off..."

"No, you don't want it off. It's helping you, believe it or not. I had to go into your chest, pull apart your ribs and stitch you back together. If this was off, you would feel all that. And you don't want that. Trust me."

"Less..."

She frowned even deeper. "I will, but if you start to feel pain, please call a nurse in here to raise it again. It's not bad for you. It's honestly helping."

She wouldn't understand. After all, how could she? The damned thing helped humans—that was for sure. But it was just making him feel drugged up, and it was making his whole body sluggish and unresponsive.

Finally, she turned the dial down. It wasn't as much as Ayato would've liked, but it was enough to get him out of bed in a few hours and get his senses working a little better at the same time. His thirst would also come back like a forest fire once he was up and moving, but he would contain it until the time was right. He was confident enough in that respect.

"I'll come in to check on you periodically throughout the night."

His female gave him a quick, shy smile before heading back to work, giving him plenty of time to heal.

…..

Yui had a lot to get done tonight, paperwork-wise. Everything was either on the computers or on paper, and she had to go over everything, and input the paperwork into the proper databases. She'd also been thinking a lot about her most recent patient's anatomy. That heart really was something else. It was such a rarity that she knew she had to convince him to let her take some more X-rays and the like. She wanted to have samples of his blood and the tissue and hand it over to the labs for inspection. And with the way his body healed, his blood might just be the cure for something big. She had no idea how a person could have such a body, but she felt like this was a blessing. Maybe he could save thousands of lives with just a few simple tests. And if he allowed it, the more in-depth tests could have an even bigger impact on the world. Maybe she would get to be a part of it, too. She was the one who opened him up, after all. She'd held his beautiful heart. She'd felt it beat through all six chambers and she'd seen it with her own eyes. She put him back together again. He was her patient. If any tests were done on him, she wanted to be there when they happened.

It was strange, what she felt for this man. She felt close to all of the people she saved, but she felt closer to this patient than any others. She assumed it was because of the rarities of his body, and how she knew just how extraordinary of a person he was simply from how he was put together.

And she knew when he opened his eyes in the middle of the OR that he was extraordinary. He did things that no one else could do, and his body was… It wasn't human, to say the least.

She was almost four hours into her shift when her eyes started to wander around the room. Nurses were walking around all over for the entire night with clipboards and clacking shoes, as always, but she couldn't focus on the computer screens. She wanted to go visit her patients again, especially Ayato Sagamaki, but she held her ground. She had to finish her work before she could go check on them.

She pursed her lips and tried her best to focus until she completed her task.

A few times while she worked, she saw Misaki out of the corner of her eye, watching her, sipping a coffee or just leaning against the wall. He was starting to freak her out a little bit. She knew he had to watch the place and make sure it was run properly, but there weren't any calls to the Trauma Department so far tonight, which meant that he should really be taking advantage of this rare time to finish some work, like she was doing.

But coffee sounded like a good idea when she thought about it, and she was dying for something to take her away from the bleak computer monitors. The coffee machine was on the closer side of the passage, right before the bays, so she stood and headed over there, trying to ignore Misaki's eyes as they followed her until she was out of his sight.

She picked up a Styrofoam cup and filled it with black coffee. She added two packets of sugar and a drop of cream and swirled it around before placing the lid on top and taking a sip. It was perfect. She held it close for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the drink, and hoped the caffeine would kick in while she worked, because nothing put her to sleep like paperwork did.

Before she came back to the operational hub, she heard a woman scream and nearly dropped her coffee. Misaki was already running towards the sound and Yui set her coffee gently on the counter before running after him. And as she ran down the hall, she realized that they were heading for her patient's room. She barged in, slamming the already-open door against the wall behind it.

"What happened?" she yelped, and then froze. Her patient was standing, and his expression was pissed off. The nurse was in the corner, on the floor, shaking with her knees against her chest. He faced her, the sheets falling off of his skin, exposing his bare body to everyone in the room.

Misaki immediately stepped forward, grabbing the patient's arm and trying to turn him around, but the purple-haired miracle man didn't budge. He turned on his own and let out a loud snarl, causing shivers to go up and down Yui's spine. He was as tall as Misaki, if not taller, and clearly at least a head taller than her.

"Get away from her!" Misaki shouted, throwing out his hand. Yui wasn't sure if he was trying to threaten the man, but she got a gut feeling that threatening him wasn't the smartest thing to do.

"What happened?" Yui asked again, this time looking to the nurse for an answer before something bad happened. She could hear a few nurses looking into the room from behind her.

"I just went to check his IV and he grabbed me and… and… his _teeth_..." She went back to shaking, and Yui tried to stay calm. The man looked very unpredictable, but she already knew he was pissy about his IV drip. And those sharp canines that had supposedly burned the other nurse… She didn't know what to think about that.

But at the same time, she had the feeling that Ayato Sagamaki wasn't dangerous—Not to her at least. So she stepped forward. Misaki held his arm up and tried to push her back, but Yui saw the man glare at Misaki and in that moment a part of her understood the situation, even if she couldn't put words to it.

"Mr. Sagamaki," Yui said, holding up her hands and walking past her boss. She looked him in the eyes until he met her stare, and she gulped, because she was walking up to a naked man that practically towered over her. She took a moment to look at him at her eye-level and realized that the IV needle was still taped to his arm, and the needle was in him at an awkward angle. Had the nurse done that by accident? She got the feeling that Ayato was acting as any cornered animal would.

"It's okay..." she said softly, reaching for his arm and the needle. He didn't jump at the contact when she touched him, so she went right for the needle. She looked him in the eyes once before peeling back the tape. She felt him jerk back a little when she grazed the needle, but he wasn't fighting her. "It's okay..." she repeated, grabbing the needle and giving it a light wiggle to see if it was stuck in his muscle. He let out another snarl and she took a step back, releasing his arm and putting her hands up again.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help. The needle is stuck in your arm, and I don't want it doing any damage on its way out, okay?" She stepped forward again and reached for his arm, but this time he reached forward to bring himself to her. She cradled his arm under hers and slowly pulled on the needle, making sure there was no internal bleeding as she got it out.

"Yui, be careful," Misaki warned from behind her, but she felt like she was in her own world. Even though there were nurses watching, and the nurse on the floor and her boss, she felt like it was just her and her miracle patient. And she took her time with the needle. She didn't feel rushed or threatened, and she wanted to make sure that he wouldn't be hurt by this little accident.

She slid the tip of the needle out and smiled at her handiwork. She held onto her patient's arm as she set the needle down on the side table and then looked up at him with a smile. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I need to leave," he suddenly said, and as soon as Yui let go of his arm, he headed for the door. The nurses made room for him as he approached them and backed away as he walked by. Even Misaki had nothing to say, which was a surprise. Yui turned back to the nurse on the floor.

"Are you okay?" she quickly asked, but the woman was just mumbling something about his teeth. Yui frowned and swiftly went out after the man. "Wait!" she called, and he stopped right before the exit in front of the operational hub. He turned and looked at her and she blinked a few times wondering what to say. "Well, first of all, you need to fill out some paperwork to get yourself out of her. Second, I have no idea how you're on your feet right now. And third, you should probably put some clothes on before you walk outside." The man narrowed his eyes at her and for some reason, Yui became defensive. "And as for the paperwork, I haven't been able to find anything about your age for some reason, and the address we have for you on file isn't your real address, so we'll need to address those things. Also, you have an extraordinary physical anatomy and if you would be willing to have some tests run—"

"No. No tests."

"Oh… well, I'm not sure if you know, but it seems as if your blood type is one that's never been seen before in another human. We gave you O during your surgery, and that worked fine like we knew it would, but I wanted to run a few genealogical exams on your blood—"

"I said no. No tests."

Yui paused. "But you do realize that your blood could hold the secrets to cures and—"

"I don't want to hear about that anymore." He sounded so… immature. She wasn't expecting that from him from how she pictured he would be...

She frowned at the man. He wasn't interested in participating in something that could benefit the entire human race? Keeping something like that for himself was an insult to the human race. His blood seemed to have rapid healing capabilities and healed him of pretty much every wound in a matter of twenty-four hours, and he honestly just wanted to keep it to himself? Imagine all the people he could save…

But at the same time, he had his rights and she couldn't force him to do anything if he didn't want to. She just couldn't understand how anyone could say no to an opportunity like that.

"Just tell me what I have to do to get out of here."

"It… it's just some papers that you need to sign and… I'll have one of the nurses grab you some clothes..."

He crossed his arms lightly over his chest and looked at her in a way that made shivers go up and down her spine.

"Fine."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

…

Why was this taking so long? She was pulling out papers and placing them in front of Ayato like she was writing a novel. And how long did a vampire have to stand naked somewhere before someone brought him some clothes? These people honestly didn't care. Even his female was almost oblivious to the fact that he wasn't wearing anything. It bothered him that he sensed no physical attraction from her at seeing him bare. Did she even make a passing glance towards his groin or was she almost as inhuman as he was?

Did she feel nothing about his physical self? Did a flesh and blood body mean that little to her? He'd never met any other humans who didn't at least have to put an effort in to look away, or keep their eyes on his face when he stood there. But he could feel that she wasn't bothered by it at all. How strange…

He wondered for a moment if she was the same way with her own body…

"How long is this going to take?" he asked, exasperated. She looked up at him with a tight frown.

"You could start filling out the ones I've already put in front of you if you're bored. The pens are in the cup to your right."

Ayato frowned back, but played along.

"There was an issue with your name, so if you could just fill out this form for us to keep on file here and send to other hospitals if need-be. It's just the information on you birth certificate—that's what it's asking for, but you don't need your birth certificate on you."

Shit. How old did he look? He had to look like he was in his twenties, so he counted backwards the years until he could say that he was twenty-four. He noticed that she was watching him intently as he filled out the age sheet. He didn't appreciate the scrutiny.

"There," he said when it was all signed and filled out.. He slid the papers back across the counter, and noticed the bastard male coming up to the desks. He looked Ayato up and down and then made a disgusted face.

"Can someone get this man some clothes, please?" he shouted back to the women behind him. And then the bastard turned to his female. "The nurse that was in the room with him is fine. She's a little shaken, and she's saying some weird stuff, but physically, she's fine."

"That's good," Yui Komori replied, filing the papers away.

A woman came up to him and blushed as she handed him a neatly folded pile of rags. Ayato frowned and grabbed them from her. He opened it up to find a basic t-shirt, and a pair of khaki pants hit the floor. He threw on the shirt, and then leaned over and pulled on the pants.

"He needs shoes," his female said, and the nurse kept her eyes on the floor as she nodded and hurried off. Then, Yui Komori turned back to him. "Are you sure you're okay to leave? It's definitely a miracle that you can stand, much less walk, but I'm worried that you won't come back if you need to. If you get dizzy, or your head starts to hurt, you need to come back here right away. Or just call 9-1-1 and an ambulance will come get you and bring you back."

"You want me to stay that badly, huh?" Ayato asked with a smirk. He idly wondered if she was getting annoyed yet.

"It's only because I don't know how you're able to stand right now. I don't know if your blood allows you to heal at a fraction of the time it takes a normal person to recover in the same way. You may be perfectly fine—I have no idea. But I'm concerned if something goes wrong when you leave. That's all. At least if you stay here so we can run a few final tests on your vitals, I can feel more at ease letting you go. But right now, I have no idea what your body has been doing over the past few hours, and the last time I saw you, you could barely open your mouth to speak, much less get out of bed on your own."

Ayato frowned at that. Did she really think he was so weak? Not that she could understand his healing capabilities. She was only human, after all. But it still bothered him that she expected him to recover so slowly, for whatever reason. It wasn't like anyone else would think any differently. Unless, of course, they knew the truth.

The woman from before approached him slowly with a pair of overly-used sneakers. They would have to do until he got home. She handed him a pair of black socks and he slipped them on, then tied the laces on the sneakers. He stood upright again and gave a quick nod to his female before heading for the exit.

"So," he heard the bastard male say behind him, "You've got an answer for me, Yui?" He stopped dead in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. His female was still watching him, but the male was in dominance mode, and he didn't like it one bit. As soon as he left, the male would start bothering his female with his disgusting sex-driven scent, and Ayato felt his own anger bubbling up a bit.

He was bonded, after all. He didn't know how or why, but he'd bonded to this frail human doctor when she'd saved his life, and he didn't like how the feeling made it hard for him to leave.

But he knew that he couldn't have anything to do with the human female or this place. He didn't belong here, and it was a miracle that he got a doctor whose first intention wasn't to pull him apart and inspect his insides for fun. She was just letting him walk out.

Still, he didn't like the idea of leaving her behind, especially with the male here getting all excited again. But bonding wasn't something he'd been waiting for, either. Some vampires lived hundreds of years waiting for find their bonded mates, but in all his years, Ayato never really cared if he ever bonded or not. He figured it wasn't impossible to bond to multiple people, so why did he have to choose this one? And a weak human, at that. He couldn't have bonded to a vampire, could he? Of course not. Well, whatever.

He heard the male say a few more words as he turned back to the door, and his female's sense of discomfort washed over him, making him shudder and grit his teeth as he forced his body to walk away from her.

…..…

"It's really not that hard, Yui," Misaki said, showing her two rows of white teeth.

"I… I gave you my answer yesterday..."

"I thought you said you'd think on it."

"I did."

"And what did you think about?"

Yui paused. She actually hadn't really given it any thought after he brought it up the first time. Her answer was still no, but somehow, saying that to him was more difficult than she expected. There was something in the back of his voice that seemed threatening to her, as if he would jeopardize her position in the Trauma Division if she flat-out told him that she wasn't interested. But how was she supposed to give him a "maybe" at this rate? Especially if she never intended to say yes later on.

Her patient had left the building a few minutes ago after filling out the proper paperwork and getting some clothes on. She almost wished he had stayed. Misaki only brought this stuff up when they were alone together by chance.

"What did you think about last night, Yui? Did you think about our dinner? Did you picture coming to my place after work tonight? Did you think about me before you went to sleep?"

"Doctor Sansu," she said softly, trying to stay formal as best she could.

"Come on, Yui. It took me so long to get you to call me by my first name and now you're going back to that crap? I'm your boss, but I'm your friend, too. And I'd like to be a little more than friends, actually. What's there to be afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid… I just not interested..."

"If you're not afraid, then prove it to me," he said with a wink. Was he not hearing her? "Just one night out. That's all I'm asking. Are you really so close-minded that you won't even give it a try. I'm sure you'd like me even more once you get to know me." He smiled confidently and Yui forced a small smile in return.

"I'd just really like to keep my relationships away from my work life."

"And what if you didn't work here anymore?" he asked, deadpan, and Yui froze. There was the catch. But he couldn't actually mean that… He wouldn't seriously get her fired if she refused him…right? That was just ridiculous. He had no good reason. He couldn't just fire her for no good reason like that. The company's higher-ups wouldn't allow it… right?

"If I didn't work here..." she said slowly, "Then I would probably look for a job outside of the city, very far away from here." Maybe this would help… "This job's the only thing keeping me in Manhattan, to be honest with you."

"You think you're being funny?" her boss asked, his face dropping. He looked like he was getting angry. "You think I'm joking?"

"I… I wasn't laughing, Doctor Sansu..."

"I think you're not feeling well, Yui."

"Excuse me?" she asked, confused by his comment.

"I think you should take a short leave and get your thoughts together. That's a direct order from your boss, too. I don't want you in here when you're head's not in the right place. It could affect the way you perform in surgery and how you handle _my_ patients."

"But… I'm not… I'm fine." She frowned.

"Yui, take at least a week off. You need the break. That's an order."

"But, I'm fine!" she said, creasing her eyebrows. Why was he doing this? "I want to work!"

"Do you need me to take this to management, or are you just going to cooperate with me?"

Yui opened her mouth, but she couldn't think of anything to say. She looked down at the ground and just nodded. There were so many ways he could get her in trouble if he wanted to, and if she disobeyed him, then that was good cause to get fired… She was cornered.

"Take your things and go home. Enjoy your break."

That was it, then. There was nothing else to do.

"Yes, sir."

So she just packed her things and headed home, holding in the tears until she got to her car.

…..

The female's anxiety and sorrow had been washing over him for the past hour, and it felt like he'd just taken a shower in his clothes. They felt heavy, as if they were soaked in her negative emotions. It dragged him down, and made him angry at the same time, like someone had to pay for what they were doing to her. To him. To them.

Ayato hated it.

It was such a burden. How did anyone actually live with this shit? He'd gotten home recently, and his brothers, as usual, hadn't even noticed that he was gone for over a day. He wondered when they would have noticed, had the human not saved him. It would have taken at least a few more days before they started looking for his body.

He wanted to find Reiji. Reiji would know about the bonding and how to make it go away. He was such a nerd, reading books and playing silly IQ games with every free moment he had to himself. If there was anyone that knew too much, it was that arrogant bookworm.

The first stop was his only stop—the mansion's library. Of course he would be in there, sipping fancy tea from a fancy cup and saucer, in silence on his fancy red-velvet armchair… _Ugh_.

"Reiji!" Ayato called, already irritated from his female's constant sadness. He wasn't in the mood to beat around the bush. "I've bonded! Get rid of it!"

The dark purple-haired man pushed his glasses up his nose and continued reading his thick, hardcover novel.

"Reiji! Did you hear me?"

The older man sighed and closed his book with one hand, looking up slowly with narrowed, bright red eyes. He snarled once, composed himself, and set the book on the small table next to his armchair.

"What is it that you want from me, Ayato?"

"I said I bonded. To a human. And I want to get rid of it."

The older vampire just rolled his eyes and reached for his book again.

"Stop wasting my time, Ayato."

"Oi! I said get rid of it!"

"You're annoying me now," his brother replied, a threat in his voice.

"Are you going to help me or not? I can feel her and it's pissing me off!"

"You can't get rid of it," Reiji sighed angrily, pushing up his glasses again. "You're bonded. That's it."

"There has to be—"

"There isn't. The bond breaks if she dies, but your physical body wouldn't allow you to kill her, and if you managed to harm her, your body might punish you for it, so I would advise against that. Just live with it."He paused, picking up his book and opening it. "I'm sorry it was a human," he quickly added. "These things do happen sometimes. It's unfortunate."

"Well, how can I not… feel her?"

"Impossible."

"What can I do to—"

"Nothing. It's unavoidable. Stop trying to go around it, Ayato. You've bonded to a feeble human, and now you have to live with yourself."

"But… I can feel her and it's annoying."

"Learn to live with it."

"Couldn't you kill her for me?"

"I wouldn't chance it. If you felt her dying, you might come and kill me for harming her."

"No, I won't."

"You would." He paused and glared at the pages in front of his nose. "Trust me on that."

Ayato narrowed his eyes at his half-brother.

"I can't live with this. She's upset and it's putting me on edge. My body feels weirder the further she is from me."

"Then, by all means, go to her."

"She's _human_ ," he spat.

"And you bonded to her."

"It's not like I had a choice!" Ayato snarled, baring his fangs. Reiji glared up at him, over the top of the pages of the book, his upper lip twitching instinctively.

"I don't want to hear about your bonding problems anymore. Take them elsewhere."

Ayato crossed his arms and turned away.

"Yea, whatever."

….…

The only other option he had was Laito, who seemed to pride himself on how much he knew of mating and bonding. But his blood brother was strange, to say the least, when it came to sensual endeavors.

"Ayato… What a _pleasant_ surprise."

Ayato frowned. Was he being expected? Laito turned up behind him, standing erect as a statue against the far wall of his bedroom.

"And what can I do for you today?" he said, and his voice was as erotic as ever. Ayato spat once onto the floor to show his disgust.

"I bonded, and Reiji won't help me get rid of it."

"What? The female? Why would you want to?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking. "Bonding is something that keeps our species alive."

"Yea, well, I can't exactly reproduce with a _human_."

"Oh, no. A human? I pity you."

"Don't pity me. Help me figure out how to stop it."

"Well, even if you can't have children with her, she's still your mate now. I'm sure you've felt that in your blood. Did you drink from her yet?"

Ayato cursed under his breath. "Why would I do something like that?"

"It would make the bond stronger."

"Exactly. Why would I want to do that?"

"Stop thinking of ways to get rid of a bond, because it's impossible. And start thinking of ways to enjoy this rare opportunity. After all, you may never bond to another for as long as you live, and humans… well, they expire after a few years. Take advantage of what's happened to you."

"It seems more like a curse."

"Oh, but it's a blessing indeed. I wish I would bond. I don't care who it's to, either. Just the feelings..." Laito started to make sensual sounds and squirm where he stood. "It would be... _exquisite_ ," he moaned, rubbing his chest and stomach, and reaching down to caress his thighs. Ayato spat on the floor again.

"They're not that great. Don't get your hopes up."

Unfortunately, his brothers were right about one thing—his mind was telling him to go to her. It was the most annoying feeling in the world, especially when, consciously, he wanted to stay in the house and make takoyaki or something else to pass the time until the sun went down. But then she would cry or something, and his body would jerk, sometimes scaring him as if he was about to get into a fight. His adrenaline would spike whenever he felt her get defensive. She was one hell of a human, feeling all these things within a single hour. Did all human females do that?

Another thought that kept him on edge was the sex-driven male. What had happened after he left the hospital? For some reason, his psyche kept making him regret leaving her there with him. Granted, he knew how the bonding thing worked when two vampires were involved. Vampire females bonded back, so they would have both realized that they were bonded, and they probably would have mated then and there.

But bonding to a human… They didn't even bond back. He'd heard stories of how vampires would be stuck their whole lives being bonded to a human who hated them, and the bond did nothing to change that. It was supposedly endless misery. He knew that bonding to a human was practically like bonding to a tree. There was nothing in it for him, and it was just a useless burden. He didn't need that in his life. He needed to find a way to get rid of the sensitivity he had towards her. There had to be some way to lessen the encumbrance. It did him no good. It was just a headache.

And yet his gut was still trying to draw him to her. He could feel her enough to be beside her within ten minutes, and find where she was in a fraction of that time.

He didn't want to go to her. He didn't want to waste his time. It was pointless. But bonds were strong. And before he knew it, he was standing in front of the door.

He snarled at his own weakness, turning and heading back to the kitchen to make himself something to eat. He wasn't sure how long he could keep this up...

….

She couldn't stop crying. She always hated that about herself.

Ever since she was a child, her parents told her that she cried to much. She cried all the time as a baby, and over every little squabble back in preschool. She cried when she got a bad grade on her tests in elementary school, and when no one would play with her during recess. She would cry when she saw someone else getting bullied in middle school, and she would cry just because the day was ending when she was a teenager.

She always saw herself as weak in that regard, but ever since she started saving people's lives, she'd stopped crying. She never cried in surgery. She'd seen the worst of the worst and she'd seen people wake up from things that they never should have. She'd seen miracles and deaths many times over, but she never cried about them. She felt sad or happy to a great degree when treating people, but no one at work had ever seen her tears. And that was the way she liked it. She felt strong when she worked. Stronger than she'd ever felt in her life.

Now, she cried. Yui Komori let the waterfalls run for the first time in a long time. And as always, once she started, she didn't know how to stop. She couldn't imagine having to start over again. Not after working so hard to get where she was.

Misaki wasn't being fair. This little game of his was her life. Being a doctor was what she was, and she'd made the Care Unit her home over the years. The other employees, the nurses and everyone else, was her family now. And he was going to threaten her with that? How could he do something so cruel? Did he not know how much it meant to her?

Or maybe he did, and that was why he was using it as leverage. He knew he would win if he held this over her. But how was she supposed to fight back? She could agree to a date, but then what? If she still said she wasn't interested, he would just hold it over her again until… until he got tired of her and fired her anyway…

Yui quickly grabbed some clothes from her small dresser and headed for the master bedroom. She needed a nice, hot shower, and them some much-needed rest. She would go back to work tomorrow and try to talk to him again, although she wasn't sure what good ti would do her at this point.

Her home was a one-story flat house. She'd been renting it for years, and it held up quite nicely. There were no major problems, and the minor things were easily fixed so far. The front door opened up to a small laundry room and then a tiny kitchen. She had a living room attached and a hallway leading to her single bedroom and master bath. It was small and homely, and she didn't need anything more than that anyway. She'd been putting the extra money away for vacation trips in the future. She'd saved up enough to get the hell out of this city if she had to. But she didn't want to...

There was a set of sliding glass doors in the back of her bedroom that opened to a small backyard. Fences surrounded the property, but she could still hear the hustle and bustle of the city around her when she stepped outside. But the feeling of the dark green grass was better than stepping out onto a sidewalk and seeing the fake trees along to road as your nature for the day.

Yui was used to the sound of the city. The honking taxis and shouting people and the occasional bright light flashing in her window never caught her by surprise. She lived in the countryside as a child, but she knew that going back to that kind of silence at night would freak her out. She would never be able to sleep without her white noise now. She was ruined for life, but she loved it here.

She turned on the hot water for the shower and undressed before stepping under the running water and letting it wash over her.

How was she going to survive if she lost this job? She would have to move to find somewhere new to work, but that was the worst part of it all. She would have to leave her friends behind. She would have to leave her life behind. Sure, she could do it, but she was established. And to be honest, she knew that she'd been planning on spending the rest of her life here, for the most part.

She wanted to be a surgeon. She wanted to help people. She wanted to save lives and make a difference. There was nothing wrong with that. She loved her job. She enjoyed her work. How was it that one man could ruin her life without blinking an eye? All because of what? He wanted to take her out for dinner?

She knew that wasn't it. Sometimes she was a little naive, but she knew what was going on. Yui could tell a man like Misaki from a mile away. He was a leech. He wanted to take her to dinner, yes, but then he wanted to take her home and have a fling. And then he wanted to do it again, and again, until it was a routine, and she was disposable. And she hated that. She feared that, even. That wasn't even a relationship. That was just plain cruelty to another human being—expecting a show of love without reciprocation. People like that made her angry.

And of course, when she got angry she got upset.

Yui ran her fingers through her wet hair a few times before dumping shampoo in her palm. She rubbed her hands together a little too hard and then stood there staring at the bubbles dripping into the tub.

She was going to lose her job.

She lifted one hand and ran her soapy fingers through her hair a couple times.

There was nothing she could do about it.

Her eyes blurred as the tears came back and ran with the shower water, dripping off her chin and flowing down the drain. Soap dripped down one side of her face and landed in the tub with a foamy sploosh before catching the nearest rivulet of water to the drain. She looked down and watched it go, the water dripping off her nose and getting in her eyes. She squeezed them shut.

She had no one to go to. Her family was gone. Her friends were all here. She would have to start over, and the idea of it frightened her. She would have to move somewhere else—would it be quiet or loud? Either way, it wouldn't be the same. She liked living here. This wasn't fair.

How was she supposed to talk to Misaki about this? All that would do is make her look weak and frail and he would know he had her in a corner. Clearly, he knew it already.

Before she knew it, Yui was on the floor of the tub, wiping her face with the back of her soapy hands, sobbing like she used to when she was a child. She cried like she did with her parents for the first time in a long time. She missed them, and when her world felt like it was crashing down around her, it was all she could do but cry.

"Help me," she whispered to the cloudy steam surrounding her.

But no one replied.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

…..

Morning came in a rush of sunlight that said that it was past midday already. Yui rolled over in her bed, taking the sheets and blankets with her. She kicked a pillow off the end as she stretched, one arm over her head and the other blocking the light from her eyes. She slowly sat up, not excited for what the day would bring, but definitely better than last night. She cried in the tub for almost two hours before pulling herself together. But rest really seemed to do the trick. She was going to go to work at her usual hours and try talking to Misaki. It couldn't hurt and the situation couldn't really get any worse, so what did she have to lose?

She groggily made her way to the kitchen and made herself a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave. She let it sit on the counter to cool as she headed back to her room to brush her hair and clean up a bit.

By the time it was daybreak, and the sun was practically gone behind the tall city buildings, Yui had taken a couple hours to mentally prepare herself for what was to come. Although, she knew that nothing was really going to prepare her. She was going to fight for her job—her life. And that was it.

She stepped outside into the cool night air and headed for her car, keys in hand. She drove slow and arrived a little later than her usual time, but she figured that was for the best. No one would be expecting her… She hoped.

"You okay?" a voice called as she entered the building. It was Kara, one of the more social nurses. "We were worried you weren't coming in today."

Yui paused. "What do you mean?" Didn't Misaki tell everyone that she was taking a leave?

"Well, you're a little late," Kara said, pointing to the clock above the double-door entrance. She looked confused, lifting an eyebrow at her. "Did you not realize?" she then added with a light smile. "Maybe our top-rated surgeon should get a little more rest." Kara laughed and Yui just forced a small smile.

"Do you know where Misaki is?" she quickly asked.

"Oh, you two lovebirds spend too much time together in here," she said with a giggle. "He hasn't arrived yet, though."

"Lovebirds? Kara, we're hardly..."

"No need to hide it. We can all see that he likes you. And it's great you finally agreed to go on a date with him. I think you two go great together." She flashed a pearly white smile and Yui frowned.

"We're not dating. I never agreed to go out with him." She was getting a little angry with the woman. "Yesterday he threatened me, Kara. He was going to fire me if I didn't go out with him and I still said no. That's why I'm late! I wasn't supposed to come in today because he told me to take a break—!"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up there, little miss!"

Misaki came striding into the room with his normal clothes on and a square bag hanging off a leather chest strap, waving his hands in the air with a triumphant smirk on his face. Yui glowered at him. What was he playing at?

"Yui, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked, and she frowned even deeper.

"I'll give you two some privacy," Kara said, winking. Yui wanted to vomit, but she was left alone with the man within a minute. She took a second to look up and make sure the camera lights were on, so he wouldn't be able to try anything with her.

"Now what was all that about, Yui?" Misaki asked, placing his hands on his hips. Right away, she could see that this was all just a game to him.

"I'll have you reported for unwanted sexual advances," Yui replied, trying to sound fierce.

"But I haven't done anything. I just asked you out. That's all."

"You threatened my job."

"Says who? As far as everyone else is concerned, you were late to work today. You were supposed to be here and you weren't. What would have happened if we got a call and we needed you? That's very unprofessional, especially for the amount you get paid... You think this job is some kind of a joke? You're responsible for the lives of the patients that come in here at this hour. I'm not so sure that you can be trusted with this job if you can't at least take being on time seriously."

Yui's mouth was open. "What the hell do you want from me?" she spat.

"I told you already. I just wanted you to think about my proposition from before."

"I told you my answer!"

"I just figured you might want to give it some more thought, is all."

"No, I don't!"

"I would strongly recommend that you reconsider, Miss Komori. We wouldn't want any more unfortunate accidents like what happened today, or I may have to file a report."

Yui could only shake her head in amazement. "You're crazy."

"We got a call!" a nurse suddenly shouted from down the hall, running towards them, waving a pile of papers. "A stab wound and a gunshot, two guys got in a fight, did it to each other. Unanimous caller said he just saw them lying on the street. Ambulance should be here any minute!" She reached Yui and handed her the papers. "Lethal blood loss, and the one has extreme internal damage to the heart and kidneys, the EMTs recommend immediate surgery, maybe even a transplant. I checked and we have enough for one at the moment. I just called a couple donors as well just in case. I would get suited up right away, Doctor Komori." And then the nurse ran off to prep the rooms.

Yui turned to rush off as well, but Misaki grabbed her upper arm and spun her around violently. She winced at what she knew would be future bruises.

"You didn't answer me."

"Sir," she said angrily, "there are two dying men on their way. Would you please let me go—"

"I said, answer me. _Now_ , Yui. You wouldn't want more people to end up dead because you couldn't come in on time, right? I'll have you all over the news, sweetheart. You can bet on that. " _The woman who neglected to save lives._ " How does that sound? You'll never get another job in this line of work again. I can _ruin_ you. Don't doubt that."

Yui pursed her lips. "A date? Is that all you _fucking_ want? Will you leave me alone if I say yes?"

"Say yes, and I'll do whatever you want me to." She didn't like the way he sounded. He was winning. And she was letting him.

…..

"Absolutely not."

Ayato ground his teeth so hard they hurt.

"Well, fucking do something! Anything!"

"As much as I love tying people up, Ayato, this isn't how to solve your problem." Laito smirked, playing with the tan twine in his hands. His purple-haired brother sat in a chair in the middle of the room, glaring daggers at everything he laid his eyes on. "Get up already, will you?"

Ayato's groans turned into screams as he rolled off the chair and cradled his head in his hands. "She's in fucking distress and I don't give a shit about it!" he shouted at the ceiling. "She's a fucking human!"

"Why are you making this so difficult on yourself?" Laito asked, cutting his middle finger with a slice of the twine and taking a sip of his own blood. "It's not even like it's a bad thing."

"I'm not getting involved with a human!"

"It's not like you can just ignore it until it goes away either, you know? It's just going to get worse the more you fight it."

"Shut the fuck up!"

Ayato screamed as loud as he could and sat upright.

"I want to go to her," he growled.

"Then go. What's your problem?"

"Fuck you. You wouldn't understand."

"I'd be happy to bond to anyone, and you're over here all picky-choosey like it's a burden to be bonded, which is absolutely ridiculous."

"Are you going to help me or not?"

"I'm not tying you to a chair, Ayato."

"Then fuck off!"

"What going on in here?" Reiji asked, stepping into the room. "Who's shouting in the library?"

Laito smirked and pointed a finger at Ayato, who grumbled angrily in reply.

"Is this still about the human?" Reiji asked, and then looked at the chair in the middle of the room and the twine in Laito's hands. He raised an eyebrow at Ayato. "It doesn't exactly work like that..."

"I've been in and out of this house all fucking day and night! I doze off for a second and I'm halfway to the city already! And by the time I force my legs to walk back here, I'm halfway back again!"

"Why are you trying so hard to fight your instincts? It doesn't go away, you know."

"Then I'll keep fighting it…" His voice was dropping.

"The farther away you go, the harder it gets. It doesn't stop. If you try to fight this, you'll be fighting it until the day she dies. And then it just gets worse. Or so I've heard."

"Will someone please just go kill her?" Ayato begged, on all fours on the library's extravagant red and gold carpeting.

"You wouldn't let that happen."

"Then fucking tie me to this chair and lock me in a room!"

"It wouldn't work, Ayato. Even after her death, you would kill whoever was responsible."

"I wouldn't!"

"You need to face the facts. Bonding is permanent, and we have no control over it. Some say it happens for a reason. Others claim it's karma, good or bad."

"So, what you're saying is I deserve this torture? Tell me, then. What have I done that was so bad?"

"I never said it was bad."

"Look at me! Are you trying to tell me that this is a good thing?!"

"Go to her."

"Fuck you!"

"Why not? What are you so afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid! I don't want to be attached to a human for the rest of my life! I don't need a weak sack of mortal flesh following me around! She's weak and I can feel it! Emotionally, she's fucking trash! She hasn't given me a fucking break in the past twenty-four hours! Physically, she could never compare to me! And the last thing I want is to feel compelled to care for and protect something so worthless and frail!"

"Have you not been paying attention? That seems to have happened already, don't you think?"

"There has to be a way to stop it!"

"Well, there isn't. I told you this already."

Ayato's body jerked when he felt his female wince in pain. What the _fuck_ was she doing now? She couldn't give him a break for two fucking minutes? He hated this. He hated feeling like he had to do something to help her when all he wanted was for her to go away.

Laito took a step forward, a smirk on his face that Ayato instinctively glared at. "Maybe I can help..."

"What? How?" He narrowed his beautiful yellow-green eyes.

"Let me go to her instead. I'll make her very happy," he smiled to himself, winding the twine in between his fingers, purposefully drawing more blood from himself. "I bet her blood is even sweeter, now that she's been bonded to."

Ayato felt a low growl bubble up from his throat.

"You know what, brother? I'll spend tonight with her, I'll make her enjoy herself, and then you won't have to worry about her being sad for at least a few days. How does that sound?"

"Don't you dare touch her, bastard."

Laito shrugged dramatically. "Oh, but I thought you didn't care about her."

Fuck.

"That's enough," Reiji sighed, annoyed with the pettiness of his more exotic half-brother. "Ayato, whether you want to believe it or not, you're stuck with this. You've bonded to a human, and I pity you, but the least you can do is make the most of it."

"There's no point," he growled. "What am I supposed to do, just tell her all about vampires and how we bond and expect her not to run away screaming?"

"Believe it or not, even though humans can't bond, they can feel if they've been bonded to. Even a human's senses can tell when a vampire has bonded to them. They may not fully understand it or be able to comprehend what their minds are trying to tell them, but I guarantee, you show up on her doorstep and even a human female will be able to smell the bonding on you."

"And then what?"

"There's no answer to that."

"I mate with her? I bring her home to meet the family? We all have a nice dinner together? What the fuck do you think this is, some kind of a game?"

"Of course not, but it will satisfy your urges for now. Just being around her will put you at ease. Mating with her will certainly help."

"What if she doesn't want to?" Ayato asked angrily, and then the thought of her rejection almost sent him to his knees. He covered it up quite well when no one seemed to notice how crippling the thought had been. He lowered his eyes. "This is stupid."

"To you."

"No, it's stupid because it's a fucking _human_." His eyes flared when he glared at his brothers. "There's no future, only a false bond. I feel tormented and it's all her fault." Ayato paused and then spat onto their shoes. He looked back up at them, his yellow-green eyes glowing. His voice became feral."I can't wait until she dies."

…

Yui came out of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit cleaned and in a new set of scrubs. Even after a couple hours in surgery, she still had another four hours left in the shift.

Fortunately, both patients were steady and heading for a long and difficult recovery, but she didn't doubt that either of them would recover. On the other hand, they may have to face some serious charges and possible jail time, but it was better than being dead. And they had her to thank for that.

Unfortunately, as soon as she put down her clipboard and made her way past the passage, Mr. Misaki Sansu was waiting for her. His arms were folded over his broad chest and he was staring at the ground. He almost looked normal, but when he spotted her coming his way, his face distorted into a cruel smile and a creepy glare. Yui shivered, but walked towards him anyway, needing to get to the west wing.

"Mr. Sansu," she said quickly, walking right past him.

"Whoa there, hold up a second. I think we have dinner plans to discuss."

Yui paused for only a moment to respond. "I'm sorry, Doctor Sansu, but I have patients that need to be checked up on and—"

"The nurses can handle all that crap. And what I really want to talk about is how amazing you are in surgery. I swear, there's no one else that could do what you do. It's amazing." He was playing with her again.

"I'm sorry, I really do have a lot of work to get done before the night is over."

She tried to force her way by, but the man grabbed her upper arm for the second time that day. Yui wore a tight frown as she turned to him.

"You can do it later. Let's talk about those plans, shall we? Let's say, my place, tomorrow night?"

"I'd prefer to go out somewhere," she responded quickly, dropping her eyes to the floor.

Misaki tsked and waggled a finger in front of her face until she looked up at him again. She wondered if he could see the emotions in her eyes—she didn't want to do this. She was scared and angry at the same time, but also confused. How did she get herself into this mess? And her boss was always pushy with her, but he was never this… forceful before. What had gotten into him?

"I'll pick you up from your place. You have tomorrow off, right, so it shouldn't be a problem, sweetheart. Make sure you wear something nice, okay?"

Yui wanted to curse at him. She wanted to throw a tantrum and stomp her feet and scream at the man, but instead she kept silent and nodded once before returning to her work.

….…

Ayato sighed.

He felt like he was giving in and he hated it. What power this human had over him! It shouldn't be like this… He was a warrior among his kind. He was a pureblood, a royal, a fighter. He'd survived multiple encounters with vampire hunters and only had a few scars to show for it. He'd killed more than he could count and he was still standing, unscathed and flawless as ever. And yet one weak human was holding him down.

And he was actually deciding to go to her. After fighting for over forty-eight hours, he'd finally broken down. It felt like it lasted forever, but even consciously, when he made the decision to go to her, it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, even though he hadn't even started to move yet. It felt like he was being rewarded for compliant behavior. And Ayato hated being compliant…

He would be able to find her with ease. He felt like he'd be able to sense her from half a world away. He could already catch the scent of her blood and he was barely at the edge of Manhattan. His family's mansion was closer to the edge of the city, which he preferred. It allowed him and his brothers some privacy with all the land around their home. And for their kind, a little secrecy wasn't so bad, either. So being hidden in the backwoods was the best condition.

He sighed again when he stepped out of the taxi, surrounded by humans that neither saw him nor cared. He wasn't even sure why he'd called for a taxi, seeing as he could run their faster than any vehicle could carry him. He hoped his female's humanity wasn't already rubbing off on him. He'd rather kill himself than live like a human. And being surrounded by them made everything that much worse. He was blending in with the crowds—just like another human. He quickly pushed the thought aside.

She wasn't far now. He could feel her within a mile and he started walking, picking up the pace as he reduced the distance by half, and then cut it down again and again until he was standing outside a large complex. On either side of the apartments was a small house, and he could feel her in the one on the left. He slowly closed his eyes and felt the rush of hot water pouring over her skin. He could feel her running lathered hands through her blonde curls and it made him shiver as if she was touching him instead.

He let out a low growl when he realized his head was turning up at the sensations.

He was just here to check on her. That was what he'd promised himself. He wouldn't interact with her. He was just here to take a quick look, make sure she was doing all right after all her emotional blubbering over the past couple days, and then head the fuck home to get some much-needed sleep. And maybe find a human to drink from on the way back. He was thirsty as hell.

He was grateful for the clouds, covering the moon and blocking out the moonlight. A few streetlamps were out and he stood under them, glad to be able to stand in the shadows, where he felt right at home.

His ears perked up when he could hear her voice. Well, not truly hear her, but he could feel the vibrations in the air over every other sound in the city. He inched a little closer, making sure to stay in the dark on the sidewalk, but positioning himself to be able to see in one window. He watched her come into view, a towel around her body and another holding up her hair. She was on the phone with someone, but she didn't look happy. In fact, she looked flat-out pissed. He lifted an eyebrow and strained to hear. Her voice was clipped and cut-short, so he figured she was speaking with someone she either didn't trust or didn't like.

"Yea… be right out..." He could barely understand, but then a car pulled onto the side of the road and parked right in front of his female's house. Ayato quickly turned and pretended to continue walking as the man stepped out.

But then he froze.

That disgusting scent and the arrogant aura… It was the bastard. He looked over his shoulder to find that he'd been ignored, fortunately, and the bastard was walking right up to the front door. He felt a pinch of dread from his female and had to hold back a grumble in his throat that was threatening to come out.

About two minutes later she finally opened the door, and Ayato felt like he'd been hit by a wall. Her scent was intoxicating, and almost brought him to his knees. He'd been away from her for too long. It felt like too long, at least. Two days made his head reel. He wondered what would have happened to him if he truly stayed away from her. Now, it seemed like that would have been impossible. He took another long drag of her and closed his eyes for a moment, his blood stirring.

"What took you so long?" the bastard asked casually, all arrogant and snotty-like. God, he wanted to tear a hole in the man's throat.

Ayato opened his eyes when his female didn't respond. He looked over at the scene before him and realized that her eyes were pointed at him. He sucked in a quiet breath, but then realized that she couldn't see him. He was still in the shadows, but she was mesmerized by the dark anyway, like just his presence put her in a trance.

"Earth to Yui," the bastard said tersely, snapping his fingers in front of her face. Ayato couldn't help a growl at his taunting, but quieted himself immediately. "You ready to go or what?"

"Yes," she said quietly. It was much easier to hear her with the door open, but she clearly wasn't enjoying herself. Was this supposed to be some kind of… human mating ritual. The bastard seemed to think so from the way his body was reacting, but his female wasn't excited at all. It made him happy that she wasn't interested in the other human.

"It's kinda late, but we'll see if we can still find a place that's open at this time of night. Sound okay, sweetheart?"

Ayato found himself rolling his eyes at the endearment. His female was having none of it and he loved it. This male did nothing for her and he felt almost proud.

After a few more words were exchanged, Yui Komori left her home and went with the bastard in his car. And as they drove off, Ayato knew he was going after them.

…..

They sat in silence until the very end. Misaki clearly wasn't taking this date thing seriously. He didn't mind sitting in the car in silence and he certainly didn't mind ignoring her at a bar and grill, either. He'd turned on the radio in the car, and he paid attention to making sure that his mouth was full whenever it got unbearably awkward.

But now it was as if she was out to dinner by herself, and she didn't even know where she was. She never came to this part of town, and she never would have if it wasn't for the man sitting in silence across from her. He barely looked at her, too. What was the whole point of getting her to agree to this stupid date thing if he wasn't even going to try? She didn't get it.

"Anything else for you two?" a waitress asked, standing beside the table. Yui snapped to attention, realizing that she dazed off for a while.

"Just the check, please." Misaki answered her tersely and Yui frowned at his rudeness. The waitress forced a smile and nodded once before pulling out the small paper from her pocket and setting it on the table between them, clearly unsure who was going to pay. And after all this, if he wasn't paying… well, she wouldn't be surprised, actually. It almost seemed to her that it would be a fitting ending to this stupid charade of his. He knew she didn't want to be here with him, so he was just playing. This was probably some kind of power game to him—just some way to prove that he could do whatever he wanted. And Yui didn't even care anymore. So he won. Good. Hopefully after tonight he would let go of this inconvenient attraction to bossing her around.

To her surprise, Misaki reached for the check and pulled out a credit card. He stood immediately after and lifted his glass off the table for one last gulp before motioning for her to get up and put her jacket on.

Yui wanted to roll her eyes. He was acting more like a child than anything else.

"Ready?" he asked, and his tone suggested that he was annoyed with something. And before she could respond to him, he just turned and headed for the nearest waitress, handing them his check and card. The woman just took it, startled, and hurried off. Misaki stuffed his hands in his pockets and let out a long, loud exhale as they waited by the exit. She shivered every time the door opened, letting in a gust of cold air that hit her hard.

The woman came back a couple minutes later and Misaki flashed her a strange smile before holding the door open for only himself. Yui caught it behind him and hurried out, eager for the night to be over.

.….….….….….….….….….….….….….…..….…...….….….….….….…..….

His mating instincts were getting stronger and Ayato didn't like it one bit. The bastard was getting a little too bold with the things he thought he was hiding. Granted, other humans wouldn't be able to tell, but it was almost as if he was bonding. To _his_ female.

Ayato snarled under his breath, watching a puff of cold smoke exit his mouth. It was a frigid night for this early in the season, he thought. Not that the temperature really bothered him, though.

He'd followed the two of them to a bar and grill, and the stench of humans in the place made his head reel. He hated being around so many of them. He could smell everything from the bloody fight going on two blocks down and over, to the drunk, underage girl trying to sell herself cheap to the gentleman in the alley behind him. What kind of a place was this that his female agreed to go? He doubted the bastard would even try to protect her if something happened. He also couldn't help but be mad at her for putting herself at risk, as awful as that felt. His protectiveness of her was the worst part of it all. He didn't need that. If there was one thing he wanted to get rid of, it would be that. The feelings made him unstable, as if he wouldn't be able to control his own body.

His snapped to attention when the glass door to the place opened and he caught the strong scent of her blood in the chilly wind. He looked away in disgust when the bastard's sex-smell also reached his nose. But he looked back quickly when he smelled something else. He looked closely and narrowed his eyes. The bastard's hands were shaking. And it wasn't a cold-shaking. He was twiddling his fingers. His arms weren't swinging right as he walked. Everything about the human was just wrong. He was nervous. He was excited. Ayato bared his fangs in the dark.

His female wasn't getting the same vibes as he was. She was awkward but not as nervous as she should be. She didn't notice how off the male was. She couldn't sense his graceless heartbeat or his rising blood pressure. She couldn't feel his aura darkening over his skin… the bastard had bad intentions. And Ayato could feel his own rage building in response. He wanted to harm his female. He wanted to hurt her somehow, and by the way his body was moving... His erratic breathing paused for a moment.

Ayato ran at them.

He was there in a matter of seconds, crossing the street and flashing past two blocks. He caught the bastard's shoulder and dragged him into the closest alley within the next second, making sure to hide his face in the dark. He ignored his female's annoying shouts and cries and swiftly threw the bastard against a wall, holding him there, his feet an inch off the ground as he gargled on his own saliva. Ayato put his face real close and made sure his anger was getting across to him. Even a human would be able to feel something with how dark his aura was.

"You don't touch her. You don't bother her again. You drive her home and you hurry back to your place and hope to dear god that I'm not there waiting for you."

He let out a quick snarl before flashing back a few blocks and crouching down. He closed his eyes, feeling the anxiety from Yui Komori. The bastard showed himself from the alley and he felt her relax a little. He didn't like how she was relieved to find him unharmed.

He watched closely after a minute or two of swift, nervous conversation as the human lead her to his car and put boot to pedal. Ayato proudly noted that the bastard was more eager for the night to be over than he was.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

….….

"Cordelia is a beautiful female." Young Ayato heard the voices in the next room, his short legs swinging from his chair as he finished his meal alone. "I am honored that she was promised to me after our bonding. But I'm worried about the others. Will she bond to them as well? I've heard it's not impossible."

"Lady Cordelia has mated with the males that were promised to her on the day she was born. She also decided to mate with you as a result of the bonding. She's informed me that she no longer desires more children. So bonding to her mates would not change the situation."

"I heard she prefers Karl Heinz to me."

"I would have you speak to her yourself about those kinds of matters. It's not my place, sir."

"Has she said anything to you?"

"Nothing she has given me permission to disclose, sir."

"Can you tell me what happens to a female when she bonds to more than one male?"

"I'm… not sure. I would presume that she cares for each one as she would with only one."

"I am her bonded mate."

"That you are, sir."

"She doesn't have children with Heinz."

"Very true, sir."

"If she happened to bond to him… Would she desire more children then?"

"You would have to ask her yourself, sir. I cannot speak for my lady."

"This whole bonding thing is just a mess. It's a weakness in our species. The humans don't even deal with it. Maybe they truly are more evolved and we're the lesser creatures."

"I don't believe that."

"And you're entitled to your opinions. Tell me, have you bonded?"

There was a pause. "She… died many years ago."

"And how did that feel?"

" _Did_ , sir? It doesn't just go away. It never leaves you. It's a scar that never heals. I feel her death every day. I feel that she's not there, like a whole that can never be filled again."

"Then how can you speak of bonds like they're something good for us?"

"I never said that, sir. It was a grand experience, but it never lasts. And when it's over… it just leaves you empty, hoping you'll never bond again before your death greets you with open arms."

"And yet you won't tell me if Cordelia has bonded to another?"

"It's not my place, sir."

"What can you tell me?"

"Only that I pity her when you die. She will live as an empty shell, and I also fear for your children. Without both parents, they will all feel the emptiness. In you or in her."

"Why do you speak to me as if someone is going to die? You do realize that some things need to be said, don't you?"

"I am loyal to my death, sir."

"And what if you could bring back your dead female? What if I could do it for you? Would you tell me your secrets?"

"Do not speak lies to me, sir."

"Theoretically, then?"

Another pause. "I fear what I might do to bring her back. As you don't seem to understand, I do not believe that our bonding is a gift to our kind. I think it is a curse. Look how you question me about Cordelia. Look at the things you say. And if you could bring my female back to me, I would kill you all to do it if that's what you asked. The bonding turns us into things we are not. You are not a sneak and a snitch, kind sir, but look at what you're doing. And I say I will serve my lady unconditionally until my death. Yet I know I would commit atrocities to bring back my bonded.

"Our bonds are cruel to us. They trick us with feelings of protection and caring when all it does is force us to turn a blind eye to what we want in life. It forces our minds to forget ourselves. And when we're finally allowed to come out of it, it shows us the product of its force. It shows us that no matter what we do, we are weak. We cannot protect what we care about. We do not truly have strength or speed. It's all just weakness, and none of us can know that until we've lost ourselves completely."

….

Ayato remembered the first time his brothers brought him on a hunt.

It had been dark enough so that you couldn't even see the shadows of the trees on the ground. The moon and stars were covered and a soft fog coated the floor of the wood.

It was a perfect hunting night, and Laito had been the most excited about it. He always was. He said he couldn't help himself; but then again, even hunting became sexual for his twisted blood-brother. Ayato didn't want to recall the distasteful things he'd seen the vampire do to his prey, beast or human.

The first thing they'd caught out had been a simple deer—a female. And deer were relatively stupid. When they heard something startling, they stood still instead of fleeing for their lives. And even stupider, they raised their tails as white flags, making it easier for them to be tracked in the dark as they ran. Ayato had chased it down, but Kanato had been the one to throw the body to the forest floor, lifeless and mangled. He'd drank a little, but spit most of it out. Ayato had tried his first taste of animal blood and realized why it wasn't about the blood. He'd spit it out, too. He still did.

The hunt was about the thrill of it. You could sense a wild animal's fear as much as you could smell a human's mating urges. It was strong and it filled the area around them with a numbing musk. And when they caught a whiff, it egged them on, like their prey wanted to be caught. It got stronger the closer they were to death. That was the thrill of it. And humans were even better. They screamed. They begged. And they had emotions. They had more than just fear. Sometimes you could smell the guilt, or the anger, or the relief. The fear was normal, but human's could even experience happiness as they passed. They could be in the most pain of their life and yet die in comfort. It was extraordinary, and it made Ayato want to hunt them over and over again.

A few more weak animals later into the hunt and they'd come across something more fun—a hunter's campground. They'd left Laito with a coyote after he said he wanted to be alone with the corpse for a few minutes, and Kanato starting preying on the humans without warning. Ayato had joined him. Within five minutes, two fat men's necks had been snapped, and they'd drank them dry before Laito even had the chance to catch up with them. When he finally did catch up, he'd also requested a few more minutes alone with the human bodies. But not after congratulating Ayato on his first official kill. The blood had been so sweet—much better than vampire blood, which he'd lived off of for the majority of his childhood.

He remembered the feeling of his first human kill as he sat on the rooftop of the apartment complex beside his female's house, staring up at the moon behind a thin cloud cover. It had been a while since he'd been on an actual hunt. Over five years—maybe more.

It wasn't that he didn't want to. He rarely felt regret, although he tried to prey on humans that deserved it, and in this city the bad ones weren't too hard to find. He had to feed, of course. Most of the time he would bite, but not kill. It was easy to find women who didn't mind that. It was just a preference at this point. He also didn't need mass murders in the city right next to their home. His brothers would be pissed. They too used human females for blood. There were multiple places downtown where they were regulars, so to speak. There were vampire bars and such as well, where humans rarely showed. And if they did, they never came back—or left. And some places specialized in having humans be a part of the feeding process. Some did it for the money and some did it for the pleasure.

He was thinking that he'd probably stop at one of those kinds of places before heading home, but as he flashed down onto the sidewalk, he heard a noise behind her house. The bastard must have dropped her off in the back, and he must have been too absorbed in his thoughts to notice. Plus with the noise of the city below him—cars passing and people chatting, numbing quite a few of his senses—it was hard for him to focus.

He heard his female walk through the back door of her small home, and a light came on.

….….

Yui stepped into her home and tossed her keys into the small glass bowl on the slender table in the hallway. The dinner with Misaki had been surprisingly easy. She had no idea why he would go through such lengths to get her to go out with him if all he wanted was a silent dinner and a quick ride home…

Either way, she felt like her job was safe at this point. He hadn't threatened her or tried to force her to do a single thing all night. Granted, he'd asked her for her share of the bill after paying it in full with his car, but he didn't ask for gas money, at least. Actually, he seemed in a bit of a rush at the end there. She was a little confused about it, but she decided not to think on it too much. She'd see him tomorrow anyway.

Instead, she let her thoughts focus on her work, as usual. The two men that she took into surgery last shift were doing fine, but something about their wounds made her question what exactly happened. The paperwork all said that they were fighting with each other, but some of the knife wounds had been made at an awkward angle for someone fighting just one other person. It made sense that the one male shot the other, because the bullet had entered his chest head-on, as if they were facing each other. But the other man's knife wounds… Maybe he'd been fighting more than one and he only had time to get one shot off. And if not, anyone else who could have been shot was definitely not around anymore to testify for anything.

The first thing she'd do tomorrow would be to try and talk to those two men. They shouldn't have a problem being awake after almost forty-eight hours of anesthesia. The drugs she gave them during surgery should be worn off by tomorrow night. And if not, then she had a while. They weren't being released anytime soon. Not unless they could pull of a miraculous recovery like that other patient of hers. She wondered how he was doing as she headed for her bedroom and the master bath. She really wished she took some time to run a few tests before he'd woken up. She just hadn't expected him to be so withdrawn from the idea of it. She figured he'd need some convincing, but not such a strong-willed answer right off the bat.

Sighing at the lost opportunity, she quickly brushed her teeth and her hair, and threw on a pair of women's boxers and an ancient t-shirt. It was cold out, and the heat in her house had been broken for a little while now, but inside her home wasn't too bad. She'd tucked a few sheets and towels under the doors and around some of the windows, and with enough blankets, nothing was impossible. She didn't like sleeping with heavy clothes on anyway. They made her uncomfortable, and blankets were usually enough—even if there had to be three or four of them.

Walking back into the bedroom, she watched a few lights flash through her room from the cars speeding by before turning on the small lamp on her nightstand. She walked over and stood in front of the sliding glass doors, looking outside for a moment, before shutting the blinds and blocking out the outside lights.

Sometimes she wished she had some kind of an animal in the house. It didn't have to be anything serious, like an anaconda or a large dog. Even a house cat would do. Just something to keep her company at times like these. But she knew she would never be able to take care of an animal with her work schedule. It was sad, but it was the truth.

She turned off the lamp and slid into bed, wrapping herself in her assortment of quilts and blankets until she was comfortable and satisfied. She sighed once and then yawned, breathing deep, and caught a whiff of something rich and sweet, like fresh honey and wine. She found her shoulders drooping, even while she was still a little cold and stiff. Her muscles just unwound like she was relaxing on a beach somewhere, warm in the sand and the sunlight. The tension all over her body eased right out of her, urging her to fall asleep.

But then she got the feeling that she wasn't alone, and her body tensed right back up.

 _What the…_

She wanted to reach for the lamplight, but something suddenly hit the side of her bed and she froze, holding her breath and waiting for a sound or a movement or a touch. Her heart pounded and she could've sworn it was the loudest thing for miles. Was someone in the room with her? But that was ridiculous—she'd just closed the doors and the windows… Unless someone had been in here since before she got home…

Images of the two men from the past surgery hit her like a wave and all she could think about was how painful it would be to get stabbed or shot. And if anyone knew how many people got attacked in the city, it was her. Would she die right away? Would she suffer for hours before anyone realized something was wrong? No one would even try to contact her unless she was late for work tomorrow—almost twenty-four hours away. And her phone was in her purse, on the floor across the room.

Her only option was to wait it out and hope that whoever was in her room was merciful and would let her be. Maybe all her blankets would protect her from a knife wound. But a bullet… unlikely.

She slowly let out a breath when she didn't hear anything for thirty seconds, staying as quiet as she could. But when she inhaled a breath, that soothing scent was a lot stronger than before, and her entire body just relaxed without her consent. Even her mind was going blank.

Was it drugs? It had to be some kind of drugs. Nothing else would do this to her.

She felt something hit her bed again, but this time she felt something get on _top_ of her bed, pushing down the mattress in the corner and creaking from the extra weight. She almost rolled over, towards the new indent, but she stopped herself with one hand.

Yui panicked, but found she couldn't move.

Whoever or whatever was on her bed was crawling up closer to her. It felt like it was heavy, and on all fours. But of course it had to be a human… right? Someone out in the middle of the night looking to do something terrible. But why her? Why her house? It was the most run-down looking place on the block. Surely not a house a thief would come to. She had nothing valuable, which could be assumed by the condition of the house. So then why?

What was she doing, thinking about the reasoning behind a breaking-and-entering? Running. She should be jumping up and running, either to get away for find some way to defend herself. She should be making a break for the door or her phone or something—anything. But how was she supposed to run when there were no lights? It was pitch black in her bedroom and she couldn't see a damn thing.

As the stranger crawled up the bed, she realized that he was right on top of her—assuming it was male. And she felt a breath cover her face. It was that same scent and it made her body and mind go numb. He had to be smoking something. That was the only explanation.

He must have come here to kill her, she thought. She didn't know what she'd done to deserve a hit, but she assumed it must have been pretty bad. And then she remembered how nervous Misaki had been when he dropped her off. Had he known? Did he know this was going to happen to her tonight? Did he plan that whole thing just to get her out of the house for one night so that a stranger could sneak inside and kill her while she slept? But what had she ever done to him?

The stranger let another long breath cover her face—he was over her now—and she could barely remember where she was. And then the strangest thing happened.

The stranger let out a purr.

It was odd that she'd just been thinking about having a cat, and that's exactly what the stranger sounded like. His breath and that sound made her body go limp. She felt like the bed was floating on water, swaying back and forth, rocking her into submission.

And then something extraordinary happened. As she felt his face get mere inches from her, she was blasted with a sense of pure, unadulterated lust. For one of the first times in her life, her body got wickedly hot. Hot and wet.

She'd been turned on before, but nothing like this.

Drugs, she thought, definitely drugs. But it felt like chemistry. Pure, raw, animal chemistry.

Her thoughts were fading as quickly as the man pulled the blankets off of her and tossed them onto the floor. Yui thought she'd be cold, but this stranger and the wonderful reaction she was having kept her nice and warm.

Whatever he had, she wanted.

The purring noises got louder and he was right next to her ear. The sound was low—a deep rumble in the stranger's chest.

"Who are you?" Yui breathed.

If he was going to kill her, she found herself hoping they could have a little fun first, and she was shocked by her instinctual desires. She was never a sensual woman. She always did her work and never had time for things like this. She's had her fair share of boyfriends, but even so, she was still a virgin, never wanting to take that final step with any of her lovers.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked, but he wasn't responding to her queries.

He suddenly placed a cold hand on her face, cradling it gently, as if to say he wasn't going to hurt her. And she found her mind forcing her to believe that, even thought there was still the part of her trying to get her to run for her life. She ignored that side completely and reached a hand up, feeling for him in the dark. She met a head of soft hair and laughed—she _actually_ laughed.

Yui knew that if she survived this she was was going to have to put herself in a nuthouse.

The stranger took her chin between her forefinger and thumb and turned her head to the side, almost as if he was inspecting her. But it was dark, and there was no way he could see her.

Yui moved to turn on the lamp, but the stranger placed a gentle hand on her arm and brought it back to her side. He placed a finger over her lips and gently ran them down to her chin, sliding off. Everything he did turned her on, and she knew she should be fighting to kick him off. She needed to get her legs working. She needed to tighten her muscles and shove him off. But the truth was, she didn't want to push him away. There was something about the slight weight he was putting on her, and his head above hers, breathing that sweet air into her lungs. She took a deep breath.

God, he smelled fantastic. And it wasn't just his breath. She could smell fresh, clean sweat and a thick, dark, masculine musk mixing in the air. And when he finally breathed over her again, the honey and wine mixed in and it was euphoric. She found her body reacting in its own way—her head tilted back and her lips parted.

She felt his mouth meet her neck and she listened to him inhale, imagining that she smelled just as sweet to him as he did to her. She felt his chest expand and brush against hers and she instinctively lifted her upper body to meet his. He didn't pull back.

Everything about him radiated sexual energy, and she'd never experienced something like that in all her life. She could feel strength in his body from the way he breathed to the smell of his skin. He was like no other man she'd ever come across before. And her body knew it just as clearly as her mind did.

She wanted to tell him to kiss her, but she kept her mouth shut. What was wrong with her? She must have gotten high somehow. Something on the stranger's breath and in his pores was making her delusional.

"Here," she whispered, feeling around until she found one of his arms. She ran her fingers down his forearm until he reached the tips of his fingers, and she slowly brought his hand to her stomach, lying it flat on top of her old t-shirt. "Touch me," she breathed, almost too quiet to hear. But at that she felt him start to pull back, and her body certainly responded then.

She reached forward and grabbed a handful of whatever he was wearing and tried to pull him back down as he sat up, but his strength was unbelievable. She had no power over him and he just removed her hands from his shirt and held them against his chest, gently.

Yui involuntarily let out a moan of frustration. Her terror was just a vague thought now, barely recognizable in her mind. She wasn't afraid at all. She was relaxed and calm. And she knew she should be terrified, but she couldn't remember why.

….…

Ayato was dumbfounded.

And he liked to think he was a vampire who didn't get taken by surprise very often. He preferred to be the one who vexed others from time to time.

But this human female was hot. She was the hottest thing he'd ever gotten anywhere near in all his life—and that was saying something. From all the humans he'd had to feed from and play with—and even the vampires he'd taken—this one was by far the strongest dose.

He wondered if something was wrong with him, and he heard somewhere in the back of his mind whisper "bonding," but on the other hand all he could think about was taking her right here on this small, creaky bed.

His female moaned again as her body continued its undulating, and the scent of her arousal hit him hard. He would have been sent to his knees if he wasn't already on the bed.

"Touch me," she breathed again, and god, he wanted to. His blood was pumping so hard it hurt his ears, and his erection throbbed with its own heartbeat.

What was he even doing here? He never wanted to come inside. He'd told himself that he was just going to check on her and make sure she was all right, but here he was—invading her home and literally getting on top of her in her own bed. He'd expected her reaction to be fear, but it turned out Reiji was right. She could sense his bonding, in whatever weak, human way she could. The funny thing was that it was affecting her way more than him. All rational thought was gone from her and he could smell the only thing on her mind. It made if very difficult for him to focus.

But focus on what? He wasn't even supposed to be in here. He didn't have a plan when he flashed into her home, much less when he got on top of her. He knew where she wanted it to go, and a big part of him wanted this to go there, too.

He closed his eyes for a moment as she groaned once more, squeezing them tighter and tighter until slowly opening them again. He could see her perfectly in the dark. He could see her bright eyes and her soft blonde hair, and how she lifted her body and tilted her head back, exposing her neck to him. She knew what he wanted subconsciously, even though her rational mind had no idea what he wanted to do to that soft, flawless throat. He watched her lips part and her tongue dart out to wet them. Her tongue looked so smooth and soft and he wanted it in his mouth. He wanted to taste her.

And she was his, after all. Wasn't that his right? He already owned her. She was already his female, and her mind and body had forced her to realize that already. She knew she was his, consciously or not, and what she was offering was exactly what his body told him he wanted.

He was so cold, right down to his bone marrow. He could feel the chill of his kind running through him every day, and sometimes he got sick and tired of it. Sunlight burned a little, and fire burned even more. He'd always thought he could never get warm.

But she was hot. Hotter than the sun and any fire and any other female he'd been with. And suddenly he wanted to be warmed by her. He wanted so badly what she was offering. He wanted to feel her heat, even for a short while. He wanted to let her warm him for one night. Even if he promised never to see her again.

Ayato flashed out of his clothes in a matter of a second, leaving them folded on the floor beside the sliding glass doors, and quickly bent over her again. Her body moved in a sexy wave, her shirt meeting his bare skin, and he felt her breasts straining against the fabric.

Her breath was soft and minty like toothpaste as he captured her lips with his mouth. She immediately responded with force and he growled into her, breathing in the scent of her heavy arousal.

He pulled away after mere moments and then moved to trace his tongue down her neck, breathing in the fantastic scent of her blood, boiling to the surface of her skin in her heat. And this time, when she pushed her body up, he slid a hand under the fabric, onto her smooth, warm skin. Her belly was flat, and he spanned it with his hand again, touching the space between her hip bones and following his hand with his eyes. Greedily, he tore open her shirt. She barely noticed that he was undressing her. And she wasn't wearing a bra.

Ayato felt something inside him snap.

He bared his fangs and tore off her pants before clamping his lips over one of her nipples, drawing it into his mouth, careful not to hit her flesh with his fangs. He let his body fall between her legs and she absorbed his weight with a breathy sigh.

He wanted to kiss her again, but he was way past that now. He felt something else snap in him and realized that he was perilously close to orgasm already, his release poised in his shaft, his body shaking with the desperate need to take his bonded female. He put his hand between her legs and growled at the wet heat he found there.

Without warning, he dropped his head lower and ran his rough tongue over her upper thighs. Both her hands immediately went to his hair, digging her nails into his skull, trying to drag him exactly where he was headed.

He kissed her softest skin, drawing her core into his mouth, and she came over and over again for him until he couldn't fight his own need any longer. He flashed on top of her and took a moment to pause and relish everything. He could feel her. Just as he could feel her anxiety or her sadness, he could feel her pleasure. He could feel her orgasms and it brought him closer to his own. He felt like he was about to explode.

"Don't stop," she breathed, and her eyes were so bright in the darkness.

Ayato hissed as he drew his hips back. The tip of his erection slid into place beautifully, and he sheathed himself in her body with one powerful stroke.

He loud out a bellow of ecstasy.

And she held him tight when he let his body fall to her.

"Yui..."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six:

He had to see her again.

Ayato knew that he was giving in, but after just a taste he couldn't force himself to fight this anymore. It was difficult, of course, but now he didn't even want to. After last night, he'd come home in a haze. Apparently, once he decided to give in to the bond, his body let him have physical distance from her without the discomfort from before.

"Looks like someone finally got laid."

Ayato whipped around and hissed at his blood-brother. Laito just smirked and shrugged and headed for the stairs in the foyer.

"Hey, I never said it was a bad thing. I think it's great that you don't look like you have a stick up your ass anymore. But you really looked happy when you came through the door. She must be quite the female."

"Be quiet."

"Be quiet?"

Ayato rolled his eyes and headed in the opposite direction, but his brother flashed in front of him and stuck out his tongue. "I was serious, by the way. About me taking her if you never did." He winked.

Ayato bared his fangs and flashed upstairs. Laito followed him. "Come on, brother. Admit I was right. I can do this all day."

"Get the fuck out of my face before I rip yours off."

"How was she? Did she finish you off or just lay there like a rag doll—"

Ayato clothes lined his brother, backing him up against the nearest wall and putting his fangs in his face. Laito just smirked again and raised his hands in surrender.

"I know, I know. I was just trying to get a reaction out of you," he snickered. "Apparently all bonded males are the same when you insult their females." He paused and thought for a moment, still held up against the wall. "But then again, would you really consider that an insult to her? Wouldn't it only be insulting if I was right?"

Laito flashed away, and Ayato followed him up the stairs to the third floor, slamming him against the hallway's wall and growling again.

"Stop talking," he hissed. "You're giving me a headache."

"When do we get to meet her?"

"You? Never."

"Now, brother, that's not fair." He faked a sad expression and then laughed a moment later. "You should bring her over to meet the family over dinner." He winked again. "And I mean a _real_ dinner."

Ayato punched his brother square in the throat and released him. Laito fell to his knees and coughed up blood onto the rolled out carpet.

" _What..._ are you two doing?!" Reiji flashed over in an instant. "You're going to clean that up, Laito."

"You know," he coughed, wiping his chin with his sleeve, "I honestly believe that if I was dying on the floor, you would only come to clean up the mess."

"We all know how much you enjoy being roughed up and thoroughly beaten," Reiji sighed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "It's unnatural, but I wouldn't want to stop you from having your fun. Also, hydrogen peroxide should take out a blood stain on carpeting. I would advise you don't leave it there for too long now, or you'll be on your hands and knees scrubbing for a while."

"Bitch."

….

Yui sat at the control center of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, filling out some paperwork on the screen and filing away excess data for future use. She printed out a few papers and placed them on a clipboard before standing and grabbing a pen off the counter. She started making her way to the patients' rooms, eager to have a little chat with the men from two nights ago. There were a couple holes in their story that needed to be filled.

On another note, Misaki hadn't said a word to her all day. She'd passed him a number of times, but he'd ignored her for the most part, except for a quick "hello" at the beginning of her shift. It was like she'd completely turned him off. And although it was a pleasant surprise, now that he wasn't bothering her anymore, it was also a little sad. Was she really that undesirable?

Then thoughts of last night hit her and she almost staggered into a wall. The memories still made her hot, but at the same time there was a glow throughout her body, a sweet satisfaction that she'd never felt before. She could barely remember what had happened to her last night. She remembered getting home and locking the door and crawling into bed, but other than that it was a little blurry. On the other hand, everything she'd done horizontally was vivid as hell.

Which made sense, because the stranger had given her the first orgasms she'd ever had.

But when she thought about it rationally—god, she'd had sex with a complete stranger. Granted it was really, really good sex, but that was beside the point. She'd fallen asleep after round three with him, and when she woke up in the morning, he was gone. She thought it had been a dream, but when she'd stood and his liquid dripped down her inner thigh, she knew that it was no dream. And she wondered if he'd ever come back. Actually, she _worried_ about it. The thought of never seeing her stranger again made her restless.

"Doctor Komori?"

Yui looked up to find Ereka, one of the younger nurses, looking at her with concern. "Are you all right? You look… lost."

"I just have some things on my mind," she quickly replied.

"Did you need help with anything?"

"No, thank you. I'm fine. I was just going to talk with our most recent in-patients."

"Oh, all right." And the nurse continued making her nightly rounds as Yui paused outside the first door, organizing her clipboard and taking out the folders on the door, sorting through the vitals and previous records. When she was ready, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.

"Mr. Callahan?" she asked quietly, pushing open the front curtain and peering inside. "Are you awake?" The man's hazy eyes looked over at her. "I'm just here to check your vitals and ask you a few simple questions. Is that all right?" He nodded.

Yui rested the clipboard on her arm and put the pen between two fingers before ruffling through the papers and marking things where needed. She checked his blood pressure and beats per minute and wrote them down accordingly for the computer records. She checked the levels of chemicals in his blood from the lab and then looked at him with a light smile.

"All right." She smiled gently, hoping she wouldn't touch any sensitive topics. "I'd like to ask you about what happened when you were injured. The papers that came in said you were in a fight with the other man that came in with you..." She flipped through the papers again, looking for a name. "Mr. Jordan. Do you know who he is?"

"I'd never seen him before in my life."

"And could you tell me why you two started fighting?"

The man frowned. "It wasn't like that. He was the only one who got hurt this bad. The others just ran away when he went down from that gunshot."

"You shot him?" she asked, already knowing the answer. On another note, she'd only heard of the two of them fighting. There were no others who were found when the ambulance picked them up.

The man's frown deepened. "What, you trying to get me in trouble, Doc?"

"Not at all. None of this is getting reported to the police or anyone. It's just for the medical record and history that I need to input into the computers."

"And if the police find out later?"

Yui frowned in response. If justice was going to be dealt, it would be to people who deserve it—that's what she wanted to say, but she kept her mouth shut on that topic. She wondered if he'd actually hurt the other man for a bad reason.

"Assuming it was self defense..." she began.

"Self defense?!" the man croaked out a laugh. "Of course it was! Five against one?! And you want to frame me for shooting the one guy? Fucking bitch."

So there had been five of them, including the man in the other room...

"I can assure you my intention is not to frame anyone. As a medical professional, I'm just looking for information that can help me take care of the both of you."

"Well then you can let me leave, if you're looking into my best interest."

"Why would you say that? Being in this hospital is one of the safest places in this part of the city. And you still need care for your injuries. That knife wound went pretty deep, and you're lucky it didn't hit your heart."

"Whatever."

"Tell me why you would want to leave."

"Get the fuck out of my face."

Yui forced a smile and nodded before shutting the curtain and exiting the room. Ereka was waiting on the other side of the doorway, looking expectant.

"He's not very pleasant tonight," Yui said softly.

"He's been like that since he woke up, actually. The nurses are avoiding having to talk to him."

"I'm going to go talk to the other one, Mr. Jordan. Is he stable?"

"I think he was awake a half hour ago. Not sure about now. His vitals were all stable, though."

Yui nodded and placed a hand on the young nurse's shoulder before heading a few doors down. As soon as she stepped under the doorway and pulled the curtain back, Mr. Jordan's head snapped to attention. His dark brown eyes locked on her and he narrowed them just as quickly.

"You… smell like one of them..." But then his eyes softened like he was tired and he looked back up at the ceiling. "Some of us come so close to them… so close to death, and we don't even know it."

Yui lifted an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"It's not like you'd ever even know..." He trailed off. "How can I help you tonight, Doctor?"

"I'm… uhm, just here to ask you a few questions."

"Shoot."

Yui paused for a moment. She didn't even bother getting his clipboard if his vitals were completed not too long ago. "Uhm, yes. Could you tell me about the night you were injured?"

"What about it?"

"Well, the other gentleman, Mr. Callahan, says that you attacked him. And that you weren't alone."

"What of it?"

Yui gulped once. Was this man dangerous? Granted, he was in no condition to even place his feet on the ground, but she still got a little nervous. "Could you tell me why?"

"Personal reasons."

"Was it worth getting shot over?" Yui almost shot her hand to her mouth, but she couldn't help it. The way this man spoke was as if the world was in the palm of his hands, and two people got hurt because of it. She wasn't much for bragging but she knew that if they'd ended up in another medical facility they might not have survived, Jordan even more so than Callahan.

"I'm alive, aren't I? And I've got you to thank for that. Can't say as much for the other guy."

"He's alive, as well."

"For now."

"Are you threatening him?" Yui said, wondering if she would have to get the police in involved. That wouldn't be fun, especially if she called them while he was still being cared for. The last thing she needed was a bunch of cops running around the place, too.

"It was just a joke, Ma'am."

"I certainly hope so. You have a poor taste in humor."

"May I ask what kind of weapon you used to injure Mr. Callahan?"

"Just a knife."

"Can you recall the brand? The make? The length? Anything like that? Even the color would be helpful."

"It was a black knife someone gave to me, about eight inches on the blade maybe."

"That's quite a large knife for someone to be carrying around."

"Yea, illegal, too." Mr. Jordan smirked. "You gonna tell on me, Doctor?"

Yui let out a sigh to hide her anxiety. "A nurse will be in to check on you once every hour. If you need anything in the meantime, please feel free to hit the red button under your right arm and a nurse will be in to help you within a minute. All right? Have a nice night, Mr. Jordan."

"Can I ask you something real quick?" he said quickly, and Yui stopped herself from turning to leave. She looked over at him and nodded slightly. "What do you know about monsters, Doctor?"

Yui paused for a second, feeling a chill go through her. She gulped again. "Good night, Mr. Jordan."

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Yui leaned back in her chair and stretched. The majority of her computer work was finished and she was just doing tomorrow's work to pass the time. All the records were updated and the two newest patients were all set to be released when they were physically able. It might be a little while for Jordan because of the gunshot, but Callahan could be out within the week if he healed up right.

"Can I speak with you for a moment?"

Yui looked up and was shocked to find Misaki walking up to the other side of the counter. She immediately sat up straight and pretended that she'd been working diligently.

"Of course, sir. What can I do for you?" She just hoped that he wasn't in a bad mood after last night. And she wondered whether or not they were past all the formalities—even though it was best if everything just stayed the way it was.

"So, I just wanted to say…" He trailed off and looked around, then back at her. "I don't think… you and I would work out, so..." He trailed off again and Yui just nodded her agreement. "I'm going to head home early tonight..." He looked like he wanted to say something else but he just shrugged and turned away, heading off.

She watched him as he headed for the double doors ahead of them, and when they opened automatically, she noticed a familiar head of light purple hair coming into the building. Time seemed to stop for a moment as the two men passed each other under the doorway. They both took a moment to pause and glance at the other, and then continue, as if nothing had happened. Yui watched Misaki as the doors closed, and then fixed her eyes on her ex-patient.

The man lifted an arm and casually waved at her as he walked up to the front of the desk.

"Mr… Sagamaki, right? Ayato."

"You remembered my name," he said with a smirk, leaning forward as his palms hit the counter. Yui jumped at his forwardness.

"Are you all right? Are you not feeling well?" she asked, wondering why he'd have come back here so soon.

"I'm fine." He still wore that smug smirk as he glanced her up and down. "How are _you_?"

"I'm..." Yui narrowed her eyes at him. "Sir, you should have a reason for walking into a hospital like this. It's improper to make your way into a medical facility without good cause. What if there was an emergency? You'd be in the way."

Ayato Sagamaki seemed to be taken back a bit, and he stood up straight, letting his weight off the counter. Yui mentally nodded at herself for setting him straight.

"Mr. Sagamaki…" Yui paused and then crossed her arms. "If there's nothing you need, I would kindly ask you to leave."

He lifted an eyebrow at her and crossed his arms in reply. "What's wrong with you?" he suddenly asked, and Yui narrowed her eyes, recalling the events that happened while he'd been under her care. He'd injured two of her personnel and he'd shown his indecency and ungratefulness to her and her staff on his way out. She wasn't too fond of patients like that.

"Excuse me? I'm working. It's been a long night. Please forgive me if I'm not especially inviting to people who don't belong in my emergency depaartment. I hope you have a good night, Mr. Sagamaki. Should I call someone to escort you to the exit?"

"You don't… remember me?"

"Of course I remember you. I saved your life and you didn't so much as say thank you. You stalked around the halls without your clothes and you wouldn't even listen to my proposition for testing—"

"That," he quickly interrupted. His eyes were hard on her. "I'm here for that."

Yui blinked a few times, having a rough time wrapping her brain around his words. "You… came here to be tested?"

"You want that, don't you?"

"Well, of course. Your physical body is…" Yui's words faltered when Ayato Sagamaki seemed to be listening too intently to her. "It's extraordinary." He smirked at her and she frowned.

"First things first," he said, holding up a finger, "None of my blood leaves this building. Understood?"

"Well, it can't be tested if I don' send it to one of our labs in downtown—"

"It's a deal breaker, Yui. It doesn't leave here."

Yui didn't know what surprised her the most—the tone of his commands or the way he said her name like that. Both were equally disorienting. Something about him threw her off. She felt a little dizzy and perfectly balanced, at the same time. It was… and odd feeling.

"That's quite a large part of the testing, though…"

"I'm sure you can find another reason to keep me here," he smirked.

"There are a few more tests I could run, if you'd be willing. It wouldn't take too long, either."

"Sure."

"I could contact you with the results when they come in afterwards," she added, standing and quickly gathering some papers on the counter. It took her a minute, but once she fully realized what he was offering, her brain started working right again. "It won't be anything interesting to you, but it would be a lot of new information for our records here. And for the records at hospitals around the world."

"I'd like to be unanimous."

"Of course. I'll just have you sign a few papers and I'll get you a room for the testing. Some nurses will help you into new clothes and they'll give you instructions—"

"And when do you come in?"

"Me? Oh, well the nurses can handle pretty much everyth—"

"I'd rather you do it. Since you're the one who… healed me." Yui felt like he meant something other than the surgery, but she ignored whatever was in the back of her mind.

"I can assure you that our nurses are far from incompetent. We have all your x-rays and pictures of your internal organs on record here."

"I'd still rather it be you. I don't trust anyone else."

Yui took a quick glance back at the computer screens to her left and sighed. She needed a break from doing all her work for tomorrow, and at this rate she'd have nothing to do for the next few shifts anyway, so finding something to do with herself in the meantime wasn't such a bad idea.

"All right. I'll just get you those papers then and we'll find you a room."

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Ayato couldn't stop frowning. What was wrong with her? Any female vampire would have bonded back to him by now, especially after mating, but his female didn't even recognize him. He knew the scent at first must have been overwhelming… But for her to just not being able to sense the bonding on him anymore was ridiculous. It was like she didn't even remember him. Granted, her poor human eyesight couldn't cut through the dark like his, so for all she knew, she'd fucked with a stranger last night. And the thought of her thinking about someone else pissed him off—even if it really was him and she didn't know it.

On another hand, he wasn't sure if telling her was the best idea. For a human, it would probably just freak her out, and he was only interested in spending some time around her for now. If he had to deal with some stupid medical exams, then so be it. As long as his blood didn't leave here, it wouldn't be a problem. Vampires throughout history had been dissected by humans before, so it wasn't like he'd be the only one with his anatomy in all of medical history. And he had a feeling he'd be able to get her to keep a lot of his records hidden, or at least mask them to look unimportant. He didn't want this to turn into a cure for cancer or something outrageous like that. His blood was the only thing that would make the humans go crazy. Everything else about him was just… weird to them. His anatomy served his own bodily functions, and the differences were useless to a human. He had more blood types in his body than humans had in general, so he also had more ways for each type to get around inside his body—extra veins, double organs, a different heart and a six-chambered stomach. They could all just be written off as birth defects, honestly.

But once humans started messing with a vampire's blood… then they would encounter his species' healing capabilities, and that wouldn't be good. They'd been hunted down in the past for their blood—centuries ago—and he wasn't about to start a civil war between their people. This was just… a little fun for him on the side with his female.

Still, it was a strange feeling to be so attached to her now, and have her feel nothing in return. And if anything, her obvious distrust hurt him a little. His insides ached a bit every time she felt nervous or incredulous towards him.

Yui Komori pulled out some papers and slid them over to him, a pen on top. He just signed without reading, figuring he could always tear them up later if they said something he didn't agree with. Then she stood, filed the papers away and directed him down the hallway. They stopped at one of the closer rooms and she waved for him to enter first. He followed her hand and went inside, sitting on a large, blue seat in the middle of the room.

"Here," his female said, pulling out a pair of thin blue clothes from under the far counter. She handed them to him and he eyed them for a second. "I'll give you a few minutes. Please change into these. You can put your clothes on the counter. And you can leave your underwear on underneath."

She nodded once, mostly to herself, and them closed the door behind her. Ayato rolled his eyes, flashing out of his clothes and into the new ones in a little over a second. He tossed his pants and shirt into a ball in the corner of the room and flattened out the papery clothes on him. God, he looked like a lab rat. He couldn't believe he was doing this just to see her. How stupid…

A few minutes later, a nurse entered the room after knocking once and Ayato immediately glared at her for not being his female. The new woman was a little older than Yui Komori, and she held a clipboard on her one arm and a pair of pink, horn-rimmed glasses were in her free hand. She quickly slipped them on her face and looked up at him.

"I'm just here to write a few notes. Doctor Komori should be back in a minute."

Good. For a second he'd thought she'd lied to him.

After another few minutes, the one woman was gone and his female came back into the room. He smirked when she shut the door behind her. He could always make her realize that it was him last night. But on the other hand, this was kind of fun—that she had no idea. He wondered what he could do with this opportunity.

"Okay, so, are you saying no blood tests at all, or just that nothing can be sent to the lab, because there are a few tests that we can run here in our own lab. We don't have as much equipment as Vino Hertage's main facility, but we can still look at your cell structure and try to analyze which blood type you are. I still don't know why your blood wouldn't type during your surgery, but it might be worth it to try and find out. I could also use it to look at things like your blood sugar count and some general health conditions. I don't want this to turn into a physical but at the same time, that's kind of what this is."

Ayato narrowed his eyes for a split second before shaking his head. "No blood tests." It was too close of a call for him to make. If they starting looking into the blood cells, he could be in trouble. The biggest problem was always his species' healing abilities, and that could all be found in his blood and tissue. Luckily, his female seemed to be happy with him just agreeing to this nonsense testing to begin with.

"Okay, that's fine." She smiled and he almost got butterflies. Almost. "The first thing I'd like you to do is just relax. I'll take your blood pressure and your heartbeat and I'll check you lungs and do some external checks. Then if I could just get a urine sample from you. And then I'll do some x-rays and scans. Does that sound okay?" He just shrugged and sat back. She seemed pleased, and it calmed him. It actually made him a little sleepy, but he liked it.

She started by placing a black Velcro wrap around his upper arm and taking his blood pressure. Her hands were warm on his skin as she held his arm to her side and he found his eyes closing as he laid back. She grabbed a stethoscope hanging off the wall and asked him to breathe as she slid it under the paper clothes on his bare skin, back and forth over the span of his chest. Just getting close to him and touching him, skin-on-skin, seemed so natural to her. He was disappointed that his body didn't have a stronger effect on her. Every time he stopped at a pub or a vampire bar, he always got sensual reactions from the females that swarmed him. But her…

When she was finished with his lungs, her hands gently ran over his bare skin, prodding and pushing on him. It felt like a massage and he almost laughed. This wasn't how he ever expected a meeting with his bonded female to go, and although it was unusual, it was still amusing to him.

"How are you?" he suddenly asked, and she looked at him, confused. Her hands were still under his mock-shirt, his fingertips gently prodding at his stomach.

"What do you mean?" She smiled. Ayato made a mental note that she enjoyed her work. She paused every time she seemed to find something interesting, and she was eagerly jotting down notes on that clipboard of hers after each type of exam. The prodding seemed to yield interesting results, because he could sense a bit of excitement from her each time she found something that was… inhuman about him.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," she laughed. She could probably sense that he was just looking for something to say, but he didn't care. Whatever got her talking was worth the effort. He didn't like being a test subject in silence. And it took a lot of effort to not ask if she was feeling sore, or anything regarding how she felt about last night. It wasn't as if he felt insecure about his own performance, but he was pretty sure she was new to that kind of thing.

"Are you seeing anyone?" he asked, smirking. Yui Komori paused and looked up at him in shock—he finally got an emotion out of her. She quickly drew her hands out from under the papery shirt and went back to writing on the clipboard. Ayato kept his eyes on her face when a slight blush painted her cheeks. At least she was attracted to him… He was starting to worry that she was the inhuman one.

"I'm sure the scans will tell us a lot more about your anatomy, but from what I can tell, it's a lot more than just your heart," she said quickly, filling up the silence with more testing-talk. "It's almost as if your entire physique if different from the average human. It really is extraordinary. Have you ever heard things like this from your previous physicians? I'm sure you've heard some kind of specialist tell you something like this before, haven't you?"

Ayato shrugged, closing his eyes again. With how much closer he'd bonded to her last night, it wasn't difficult to feel her all around him. In a way, it was stronger than actually seeing her. He could smell her and hear her and sense the way her body moved and how her emotions flared and dimmed at times, and how her body temperature stayed steady and her heartbeat changed every other second. Even as a human, she was quite extraordinary herself… Or maybe that was just because he was bonded to her… Either way, he was enjoying his own kind of exams of her body just as much as she was enjoying her little tests on him.

"Okay, here's a cup. I'll give you a few minutes."

Ayato rolled his eyes as she walked out, closing the door behind her. He flashed in and out of the small bathroom to the right of the chair within a few seconds and then waited for his female to return. He still wanted a reply to his previous question, and he smirked at how he was going to get her to answer him.

But after a few minutes went by, he felt her anxiety rise, and he flashed back into his normal clothes and flashed into the hallway, searching for her.

"There! That's it! That's the monster!"

Ayato narrowed his eyes at a man in another set of papery blue sheets, pointing frantically at him from down the hall. The human male's face was enraged, but not as much as Ayato's when he realized the man's hand on his female's arm. He could feel the pain he was inflicting on her and it made his vision go a little red. Keeping his pace at as much of a human speed as he could, he moved forward and stood in front of the man, his expression menacing.

"Let her go."

"Mr. Jordan!" his female whined, trying to get her arm free. "Please calm down! There's nothing to be worried about here! You need to get back in bed!" And then she turned on him with determined eyes. She was in her element—nothing mattered but her work now. Ayato frowned. "Mr. Sagamaki, please see yourself back to your room. I'll be with you in a minute."

"You're one of _them_!" the man barked, and Ayato took a step back. Was this human male… one of the hunters that attacked him? There was a familiar scent on him that made Ayato snarl. He didn't look familiar, though. But there was no other explanation as to how a regular human would be able to tell what he was, unless he'd been trained. He bared his fangs.

As expected, when the man saw Ayato's sharp incisors, he went into attack mode, reaching for an invisible gun on the side of his hip, flailing about when he grabbed a handful of air. He almost fell and took Yui Komori with him. Ayato immediately pushed the man to the floor and grabbed his female, pulling her to his side and glaring at the injured hunter. If they'd been alone, he would have been dead before his ass hit the floor.

"Mr. Sagamaki!" his female suddenly shouted, and he sensed an anger building up in her so hot he released her immediately. She even had the audacity to push him away once he released her and he growled. She dropped to her knees and called for help for the hunter, ignoring him completely. A few nurses were already on their way over. Ayato frowned. Why was she trying so hard to help him? Hunters killed people like him for a living. And if this one had been part of the group that attacked him… His female was helping someone who wanted his head on a stake.

He was suddenly disgusted with her and he spat on the ground, accidentally hitting the side of her shoe. She looked up at him and scowled once before turning her back to him. Ayato felt wounded and furious at the same time as he immediately headed for the exit, refusing to clutch at his chest as it began to burn him.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven:

"I'd like to have him checked into a psych ward within the next couple of days," Yui told one of the nurses, Sayuri, over the phone. "I heard him mention something about monsters before but I didn't think he would hurt himself or anyone else over it. I guess it's more serious than I thought. I'd also like an officer outside his room or at least in the operational hub at all times until his transfer. I'd like him out of the Ruby Emergency Department. And as long as the facility has a psych ward and basic care for short term patients, I don't think I really care where he goes. I think he's a danger, and I don't want him there anymore."

"You know, Doctor… you could have waited until your next shift to take care of all this," Sayuri said kindly on the other end of the line. "You're very dedicated to your work, but please try and enjoy your breaks."

Yui smiled to herself. "I know. I just don't want anyone getting hurt—him or any of the other patients. And this incident led me to lose a rare opportunity. I'm just doing my best to make sure that doesn't happen again."

"Are you talking about the young man that came in for testing? I looked over the records you wrote down and they're perplexing, to say the least." Sayuri paused. "Now, look at me. I'm giving you another reason to talk about this job," she laughed. "Please have a good rest of your evening and I'll see you when you come in tomorrow, okay?"

Yui was about to hang up when another thought crossed her mind. "When do you get off work, anyway, Sayuri?"

"Uhm… in about an hour, I suppose. I only got here a little bit before you did, so not too long."

"Would you like to go out for breakfast in a couple hours?" Yui asked suddenly, surprising herself and probably the nurse on the opposite end of the call. It was just that she'd been thinking about her situation here recently. After what happened with Misaki, and the threat of losing her job—not to mention the only person she ever slept with was a stranger—she realized that it might be worth the effort to make some friends. After all, she was living in this city, and she'd never really gone out with girlfriends or even out on dates, save for the one disaster with her boss. And it made her feel a little lonely, more so now than ever before.

"Aren't you tired after working all night?" Sayuri asked. Her voice sounded a little lazy, but Yui was willing to bet that if she kept on asking, she would say yes. She was always one of the friendlier nurses in the Ruby Emergency Dept.

"I'll be fine," Yui said with a smile. "How about I meet you in front of the hospital around nine o'clock? Does that give you enough time to get home and rest a little? And you don't live far from there, right?"

"Only a couple blocks, but I don't mind walking if you want to drive from there."

"Sure!"

They ended the call with a quick, but friendlier goodbye and Yui put her phone down on her nightstand, clapping her hands together and smiling to herself. She hoped Sayuri wouldn't mind being her friend, but she worried that she might be a little too over-excited to be hanging out with someone for once. It was a nice feeling, having something to do later on with her spare time—instead of just sitting around watching the latest episodes of her favorite shows on Netflix, or browsing the internet for useless information. Not to mention going out for coffee by herself or reading up on medical history textbooks. But now that she thought about it, Yui realized that her entire life revolved around her work. Even when she was home, she was researching conditions and new information to help her patients, and she spent half her time worrying about them that sometimes she considered just sleeping over at the Emergency Department sometimes.

So this would be a good thing. Making a new friend was definitely a good idea.

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"What's up?" Laito asked, leaning on the back two legs of his chair and flinching when he almost fell.

"I said, she didn't recognize me."

"Not to be rude or anything, but your face is kind of bland." His brother tilted his hat on one side of his head and balanced it there without his hands. "Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about," he added with a laugh.

"I went to her but she couldn't sense a thing. It was like she had no memory of what happened last night."

"I'm still not following you, brother." Laito fixed his hat and leaned forward to sit in his chair properly. He turned and swung his leg over the other side, facing Ayato. "Why don't you be a little clearer if you're asking for my help."

"I'm not asking you for anything," Ayato quickly spat, and his brother shrugged and turned his back to him. Ayato sighed. "When I went to her to complete the bond, I guess it was too dark for her eyes and she didn't see who I was… I just expected her to be able to sense me the way she had before. It took me off guard when she only remembered me as a patient."

"So..." Laito started playing with his hat on his head again. "After you slept with her… you realized that she had no idea who was in her bed?" Ayato nodded. "She actually let you fuck her when she had no clue who you were?" Laito chuckled. "That's an odd human… Maybe I should pay her a nighttime visit, hmm?"

Ayato hissed, even though he was used to his brother saying things like that just for his reactions.

"I'm just kidding," he said, laughing and waving a hand through the air. "She would only let you do it, probably."

"That's dangerous. You should tell her who you are as soon as possible."

Ayato turned and scowled at Shuu, leaning against the far wall, near the doorway.

"Nobody asked for your opinion." Ayato frowned. "And what would you know about it, anyway?" His orange-haired, couch potato of a brother was probably his least favorite family member—and that was really saying something…

"Bonding? I barely know anything about it. But I know that humans are much different than us when it comes to mating. They can choose more than one mate for life. They pride themselves on things like marriage and ceremonies, but they often keep more than one mate at a time… They're disgusting."

"That has nothing to do with Ayato bonding to her," Laito shrugged.

"Doesn't it?" Shuu asked. "Because she sensed your bond to her when you mated, your frail human is now attached to someone she can't even recognize."

"I'm confused," Laito muttered.

"She's clearly felt your bond if you've mated with her, Ayato. But for the sake of explaining things, let's say I went to her tomorrow night, showed her my face, and told her that I was the one who mated with her. What do you think would happen?" Shuu paused, but didn't give him any time to respond. "She's only a human. Her mind would bend and twist and tell her that I'm the one she needs to be attached to. Not you."

"I don't think that's a problem. No one knows I was there."

"Then think about it from another perspective. How would you say she's been reacting to you? And I mean when she knows it's you."

Ayato shrugged. "I don't know."

"Is she attached to you at all?"

"I don't know," he echoed, getting a bit angry.

"I would say no, then—at least not attached in the sense of a potential mate. And let's say you don't tell her for a while, and you keep interacting with her. She'll think higher and higher of who she mated with, no matter what you do. Then if you tell her the truth, what do you think will happen?"

"Nothing good," Laito chuckled, and Ayato shot him a glare.

"I think you're exaggerating," he replied coldly. "If she thinks so highly of me—"

"But she doesn't. You've created a split in her mind. She's only human, Ayato. She can't fully comprehend having one of our kind bond to her. She'll never feel the full extent of it. She probably came close to it when you mated for the first time—which is very important, but you shouldn't have kept your identity a secret. That first mating is a hundred times more important with a human, because it's actually strong enough for them to feel. And after that… it just keeps getting duller, until you're the only one who feels anything."

"Okay, I fucked up. Whatever. Tell me how to fix it." He crossed his arms lightly over his chest.

"I wouldn't keep her in the dark much longer—"

"Listen, brother," Laito jumped in, standing and putting an arm around his shoulder with a smirk. Ayato tried to brush him off but failed. "This could also be fun. Think about what you could do with this, now. On one hand, you can have her begging for more nighttime visits, barely able to contain herself at just the thought of you." He ran one hand over his chest and stomach, caressing himself. "And on the other hand, you can visit her at work and during the day, giving her the attention that all human females secretly desire. You can split yourself into two people, and have her bond to both of them. And then, when you do decide to tell her, it'll make her attachment to you that much stronger."

Shuu rolled his eyes, but Ayato lifted a single eyebrow at his blood brother's proposition. It sounded too easy… too good to be true. Maybe Shuu was right…

"And I can help you, if you want. I know what all females need. Flowers and dinner dates on one side, and hardcore fucking on the other." Laito paused to moan at his whatever was going through his own mind, as his one hand continued its sensual roaming over his body. "She won't know who to choose. She'll want to be treated gently, but she'll want to _scream_ , too. She'll be torn between both sides, and you'll have her fighting herself because she wants both, and then when you finally tell her you're one and the same, she'll go _crazy_. She'll want you with her all the time. She'll never get enough of you. It's _so_ perfect."

Ayato narrowed his eyes as he considered what his blood brother was telling him. In the back of his mind, he realized that somewhere during Laito's speech, Shuu had disappeared.

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It was dark, but there was a scent of a masculine musk in the air all around her. She couldn't help it when she felt her core explode with a damp heat, making her clamp her legs shut.

"No, don't do that..." a male voice whispered playfully in her ear. It sounded so familiar, like she's heard it before somewhere, and then suddenly she was in surgery, an open chest cavity laid before her. People were shouting at her to do something but she had no idea what she was looking at. She realized she was in jeans and a regular sweatshirt, and she didn't even have gloves on. The patient in front of her was dying, and then she head a flat-line, and people were screaming. They were throwing things, and something hit her in the arm so hard it threw her back and she fell against a wall.

And then her back was against solid brick, and five men surrounded her in an alleyway, coming at her with black, eight-inch knives. She crumpled to the ground and screamed for help, squeezing her eyes and covering her ears with her hands from an awful noise. She felt a knife hit her where her arm had been hit before and her eyes shot open. Blood dripped down to her elbow and fell onto the floor of her bedroom. She was standing in front of the bathroom, and a shadow moved to her left. She jumped and whipped around, and a silhouette stepped into the light, so all she could see was a sharp pair of fangs, dripping with blood—her blood.

A squeak from a door opening scared her again, and she turned to the sliding glass doors. She was alone in her room again, with that scent washing over her and soaking into her skin, weighing her down. Her eyelids were getting heavy and she sluggishly found her way to her bed, dropping her body onto the mattress like a sack of potatoes. And then she was enveloped in it, and strong, cold arms were around her, cradling her, healing her… The wound on her arm vanished and she was finally safe in her stranger's chilling embrace. He wouldn't let anything happen to her, she knew…

A piercing noise cut through everything and Yui startled awake, sitting straight up, eyes wide. She was in her room, and her phone alarm was going off on her nightstand. A faint trace of the scent from her dream was still in the air, so she closed her eyes and breathed in long and deep, taking in as much as she could before it faded.

But she realized that it was a bit chilly in her room, even for the broken heater. She jumped when she felt a breeze from the doors to her left and immediately jumped out of bed and went over. They were closed, just as she left them, but the lock was undone…

Yui smiled, and then knew she was going crazy. She let out a laugh before locking the door again. It felt like he'd been here. It felt like he'd held her to make her nightmares stop. And she didn't care if that made her crazy—she had a guardian angel. She didn't know why or how, or even if it was real, but she knew that she didn't want whatever this was to stop—the feeling of it, these strange encounters… none of it. She wanted more.

She turned off her alarm and got ready to go meet with her new friend, eager to have someone to talk to.

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Yui drank her tea in silence as Sayuri talked and talked and talked about herself. She told her about her parents, and stories from her childhood and high school and college and parties and boyfriends and just about everything Yui could have ever asked her about anyway. But the entire time, Yui stared at the young woman's face, not hearing a word that was being said. All she could think about was how disappointed she was in herself for not waking up in time to see him. It was probably the alarm that scared him off, so if she hadn't asked Sayuri to come out so early, maybe she would have woken up to him.

But she mentally shook her head. Asking Sayuri to come out for breakfast was a good idea, no matter how she looked at it. She had the feeling her stranger would come back to her, but this was kind of a one-time thing, unless she started paying attention and trying to contribute to the one-sided conversation.

"…and then I got offered a job in Salt Lake City, believe it or not, but I had already arranged to meet my landlord up here, so I guess you could say I ended up at Vino Heritage because I was too lazy to reschedule a meeting. Isn't that funny? And it's not like I'm upset about it, either. It's not like I'd rather work somewhere else, so in a sense it all works out. I think if you just follow where the road is leading you, you'll be fine. Don't you think so?"

Yui snapped to attention. "Well… I always thought that people should pave their own paths and choose when they come to a fork in the road. I think a choice is important."

"But don't you think that if a choice is right in front of you, you should take it? I mean, instead of going out of your way to choose something else that's only different, not better."

"I suppose… That makes sense."

Sayuri giggled as she took a tiny sip of her cappuccino. "You're so straightforward, Yui. You're so… analytical. I feel like you spent your whole life listening to your brain over your heart. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I told you about my one boyfriend in college, and that didn't end well because I was following my head. My heart already knew it wasn't right, you know? But I guess that's why you're such a great surgeon. You can turn everything off and just use your head. I'd say that's really hard for most people."

"I think anyone can do that."

"Well, I think those are the words of someone who's never been in love before," she winked, and Yui blinked at her a few times. "Am I right? How many guys have you dated?"

"Three or four…"

"And how many were you serious with?"

Yui frowned. "I don't really see how that's relevant…"

"I knew it. But really, though. Once you meet someone you really hit it off with, you'll know what I mean."

With her mind so focused on her stranger, it was getting hard to use her head right now. Not that she was in love with him, or anything ridiculous like that, but she couldn't get him out of her mind in order to think straight.

"Actually," Yui started, "There's this one guy in my life right now that I'm a little confused about…"

"Ooh." Sayuri sat up straight, sipping her drink again. "I'm sure glad you're technically not my boss, or this would be awkward." She laughed. "You like him?" Yui just nodded. "You're dating?"

"Well, not really."

"Oh. Have you been on a date with him yet though?"

She wasn't sure what she would consider that one night with him, and she wasn't so sure she wanted to just disclose everything to this talkative young woman that she worked with. "I went out with him one night," she said, confident she could talk about her stranger and keep her secrets at the same time.

"And? Did he hold doors for you? Pay the bill?"

Yui shrugged. "Well, yes, he did all that. But I'm not sure how I should proceed now…"

"Oh, so this was recent?" And then Sayuri paused and smirked. "I think I know who you're talking about," she snickered, and Yui frowned. "Was this a date with Misaki? I heard about that from one of the other nurses."

"No, no. That was… Misaki and I… It was awful. I'm not talking about that."

"Well what happened with him, anyway?" Sayuri pressed, eager for gossip at work. Yui sighed, but figured it wouldn't hurt to put everyone at ease at work. She didn't need people thinking there was some kind of tension between the manager and the head surgeon.

"Oh, we just went out to eat. We ended up sitting in silence the entire time. He didn't even try to strike up a conversation, and I really wasn't into it, to be honest. And he didn't hold any doors for me and he even asked me to pay him back for my meal after he paid at the restaurant."

"Wow, I would have never guessed our boss was such an idiot when it comes to dates. He always gives everyone that outward vibe that he'd be pretty good with the ladies, but I guess not." She giggled again and Yui smiled at her.

"Afterward, he even came up to me and told me it wasn't going to work out, like he was sorry that I was so disappointed that we wouldn't go out again. But I was relieved. I didn't want to say it or anything, of course. I feel like his ego is delicate."

"I bet. That sounds like it was a nightmare, though."

"Yea..."

"So, tell me about this new guy." Sayuri almost jumped in her seat. "This is exciting. You know, Yui, a lot of people at work think you're so secretive. You never really talk to the nurses about yourself, do you? It's not as if you have to gossip with the old lady-nurses or anything like that. You seem so serious all the time, too. It's nice to talk to you outside of work. You're almost like a different person, especially from how you are in surgery. It's nice to see that you're pretty normal like the rest of us."

Yui laughed at that. "I like normal. Normal is good."

"So…" Sayuri placed her mug down on a napkin coaster and put her elbows on the table, folding her hands together. "About this guy…"

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Ayato found solace from the irritating sunlight in one of the more common clubs downtown. The place was one of his brothers' favorites, especially Laito—which meant that there were plenty of carnal activities for a hungry vampire to take part in.

After the itching started in the back of his throat, Ayato had remembered he hadn't fed in a while. He was on-edge and his fangs were slightly elongated. It felt like his veins were running cold and it made him tense all over. He wanted to snap something in half in his frustration—so he ended up here to fix his little problem. Besides, the last thing he needed was to be around Yui Komori when he was thirsty…

Inside the building was an orgy of blood and sex and music. Everywhere he looked, he saw his own kind, groping human females and grinding against them on the dance floor, eager to have some fun before they fed. When he thought about it, Ayato was a little shocked at the amount of humans that actually knew and kept their secret, all for a little midnight fun. Many of the humans, male and female were regulars, though, and more often than not, they were being paid by the businesses around here.

The Sakamaki family was known all over the lowly places in the city. They donated plenty of their abundant cash to places like these, so it was natural that the security didn't even bother him. He cut past lines at the bar and never paid for his drink—or his women. He had a vampire's heaven, where the alcohol and the blood was free, and humans would pleasure you all night without a single string of attachment. It was perfect for people like him.

Except now he was bonded. And now those kinds of things left a slightly bitter taste in his mouth at just the thought of the things he used to do with other females.

Many of the humans were bit as soon as they entered the building, so that they could enjoy a night of bliss, drowsy and cooperative from the initial loss of blood. Others were already gone, devoured so thoroughly that they slumped over other bodies, either a sack of meat, or just lively enough to play with someone else's body. One young teen was giving a drunken blowjob to one of his kind, who Ayato suspected was over two hundred years old. He felt bad for the younger humans sometimes—they didn't yet realize that they were only lamb in the predator's den here. If they wanted some normal fun, they should have dragged themselves into a humans' club instead.

The mingled scents of sex and blood called out to him in the brightly colored lights and fog and thumping bass. He needed to feed now, and being surrounded like this clouded his mind—just the way he liked it. He didn't care who it was, as long as it was hot and fresh from the source. But there was something poetic to him about choosing the right prey.

There was a redhead with an empty tumbler in her hand, fumbling around, asking for someone to drink from her. But that was too simple. There was a brunette in revealing clothes, reaching under her pink skirt to tug on her panties in discomfort. She stumbled, bright red bite marks already plastering her skin. But Ayato didn't want someone so used. The last option he had was a platinum blonde with big, bright eyes. She looked new to this environment, and there was something about her—he wanted that one. He would teach her how things went in a place like this. And her hair… it reminded him of his female's. He would picture himself drawing her essence into him while he stalked this stranger.

It wasn't difficult for the young woman to notice his fang-baring stare. He left his lips parted, letting her know that he wanted her, and a friend on the woman's left gave her a delightful nudge towards him. Ayato watched her throat as she gulped and then met his gaze and headed towards him.

 _That's it…_

She came straight to him and immediately brushed her hair off to one shoulder, leaning flush against him, pushing her chest into his, a silent plead to touch her where she nearly spilled out over the front of her shirt.

But that wasn't why he was here. His bond to Yui Komori was beginning to turn him off from this kind of contact with another—even just for blood—and that was certainly unexpected, considering how he'd lived his entire life enjoying places like these with his brothers.

He looked down at her face. Smeared makeup ran down her cheeks from her bloodshot eyes. He smelled more than just blood, sex and booze on her and snarled. He hated the taste of blood infused with chemicals. He sniffed the side of her neck, running his nose up into the stranger's hair. Her sweat almost overpowered everything, but he noticed a faint trace of Mescaline. He scrunched up his nose, but he'd had worse.

He trailed his mouth to the young woman's carotid, listening to her moans of pleasure, and gently bit down, digging himself deeper and deeper until he withdrew his teeth and felt the waterfall that he'd been craving rush down his throat in waves. He barely swallowed, letting it hit the back of his throat and slide down, hot and sticky and so satisfying.

When he heard the stranger's heartbeat begin to slow too much, he released her and helped her drift to the floor. And then he just walked away from her, heading for the bar, his senses slowly coming back to him. Someone else would find her and use her before the night was over, he was sure. And then hopefully that friend that had encouraged her to feed a predator would take better care of her on the way home…

Ayato felt the blood take hold of him and bring him back to his peak. His eyesight saw the lights ten times brighter and his vision cut through the fog all over the floor, up to everyone's knees. His hearing amplified so much he could hear footsteps outside over the thumping bass. He could even smell that rich scent of Yui Komori from miles away…

But he hated going out in the sunlight, so he decided to just stick around this familiar place until the sun went down. It was only a few more hours, after all. And then he wouldn't be able to stop himself from seeing her again.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight:**

"Wait, you what?"

Reiji sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose one more time. "If you make me repeat myself, I'm going to get mad. You heard me the first time, Shuu."

"Our uncle wouldn't do something like that. First of all, he has no reason to want us dead. And secondly, he knows better. He's not a fool who would threaten a coven of pureblood vampires, even his own blood."

"That just gives me more reason to believe that he's not alone."

"And what? He hired a couple of vampire hunters to take us out? He would have known that Ayato could survive, and if he did, he wouldn't be too happy about being attacked like that."

"It's not like you would have noticed if I'd died," Ayato spat, storming into the room. "I was gone for two days and when I got back, Laito didn't even know I'd left the house, much less that I'd been in a human hospital with those mongrels pumping me full of their medicines and drugs and whatever else they put in me."

"Don't be moody, Ayato," Reiji said flatly. "The point is that you were attacked, and I have reason to believe that it was your uncle."

"Karlheinz? Why? We haven't spoken in decades. He up and left once Cordelia died."

"You mean, once you and your brothers killed her," Shuu sighed.

"Not like she didn't deserve it…"

Reiji coughed, clearly irritated. " _Because_ … apparently, you're not the only vampire that was attacked." He narrowed his eyebrows. "If you'd been keeping up with the news lately, you'd know that you were actually the seventh vampire to get attacked. You're also the only one who survived."

"And why are you telling us this now?" Shuu asked. "Don't you think it's a little important that vampires are being killed around the city?"

"Not around. All within the same ten blocks, to be precise." He turned to Shuu. "And I didn't tell you because I don't have all the information. It turns out that hunters are also fighting each other within the same ten blocks. There have been twelve deaths and many more injuries to the human population. Civilians were also brought into some of these battles and injured. No bystanders have been killed. Not yet, at least."

"We should try and keep it that way. I'd prefer to not get outed because the hunters can't not draw innocent people into their business."

"Since when do you care about humans?"

"Since their deaths could out us, too," he frowned. "If this keeps up, we're going to have a hard time finding something to drink around here…"

"Well, Ayato doesn't care about that," Laito hummed, blinking into the room. "He's got his little bonded human, after all. Speaking of… shouldn't you be out and about, tailing her or something? The sun has been down for a few hours already."

"She… doesn't seem to like it when I show up at the hospital. And when she's angry with me… I'll just wait until she goes home."

"And now you care what she thinks of you?" Reiji asked simply, rolling his eyes. "After all your talk about breaking the bond and hating her because she's human. You're so inconsistent."

"I don't give a damn. But when she's upset or aggravated, I feel it. And recently, most of it has been physical pain. And until I find a way to break this bond, I'll just have to—"

"You're going to be her little bitch?" Laito sang.

He growled. "Shut the fuck up before I rip your tongue out."

"Oooh, scary."

"Enough, you two," Reiji sneered. "Any more blood on the carpet and you'll both be out on the streets for a week… Ayato, I do want to speak with you about the night you were attacked, though."

"What about it?"

"Well, first of all, why were you out there?"

"What? You've never been to a vampire bar in the middle of the night? Give me a fucking break."

"Seriously. Was that it? Was it just a trip to the bar for something to drink and a girl or two?"

Ayato rolled his eyes. "He called me, all right? I went looking for him."

"He called you? And you didn't think to tell anyone?"

"It was just a boring message. I didn't think _anything_ of it, really. I figured he needed another shit load of cash because he fucked up again. That's what it was last time."

"Last time?" Laito said, "You mean over twenty years ago? I would have just told him to fuck off."

"And you never paused to think that maybe he wanted revenge for Cordelia?" Shuu muttered. "He loved her, you know. But she wasn't bonded to him."

"Yea, whatever."

"This is serious, Ayato," Reiji hissed. "Will you drop the pride for one second so we can figure this out? You went downtown because he called you out there? And then you got attacked? That's all?"

"Yea," he shrugged. "The message was short and dumb. He said he needed to tell me something and that he'd be there. But when I got there, some hunters stabbed me with a knife and they drained my blood with needles. I got shot at some point, I think. I was out pretty fast. If I'd been conscious, they'd all be dead."

"That's the thing… They are dead."

"What?"

Reiji fixed his glasses again, looking once at the floor, and then back up. "Their bodies were found in another alley a couple nights ago. They were drained of blood."

"Wasn't me," Laito laughed, throwing his hands into the air.

"That's my point. It wasn't any of us. I've already asked Kanato and Subaru. They have alibis. So, other vampires are preying on hunters. And I don't think it was a coincidence that Ayato's attackers were the victims."

"Our uncle called a hit, then. Because they failed."

"It could be that…"

"Or…?"

"Or it could be that there's more than two parties trying to kill each other."

"Are we joining this war?" Shuu groaned.

"Ayato has already been attacked. I'd say we're in it by default."

"We don't even know who we're fighting against. We don't even know if those hunters are with our uncle. Maybe they're after him, too. And if the hunters are fighting with each other, then it just gets even more confusing."

"Then maybe we should start trying to figure these things out…"

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The atmosphere was dark and heavy, and Yui could already tell why, even before she got changed and stepped out into the passage. She didn't put on her full uniform, because she knew she wouldn't be here for long. And when she stepped under the doorway for the first room, she had to close her eyes for a few moments of silence. The surgeon who had been on duty before her was already gone, maybe crying somewhere downstairs.

But the man on the table was dead.

She pursed her lips and looked around the room as people unplugged machines and cleaned up, preparing to roll him out. She looked away from the body and over to one of the nurses. She held a clipboard—just what she was looking for.

"May I?" she asked slowly, walking over to the woman in blue scrubs and holding out her hand. The woman nodded once and handed it to her. She looked down at the ground for a second before going over to help move the body. Yui looked down at the clipboard sullenly.

Another life gone, just like that. God, she wished she'd been here, but she knew that everyone did the best that they could. If the man died, he died while everyone tried their best to fight the grim odds. She had to believe that. She couldn't save everyone, no matter how hard she tried.

She narrowed her eyes for a moment after glancing over the dead man's paperwork.

"Hold on a second," she quickly said, turning around and heading after the people taking him away. She stopped them and slowly lifted the sheet back until she could see the man's face and neck. There were several puncture wounds on the side of the man's throat. She quickly turned to a nurse. "This says he came in with these marks on his neck, and he lost almost all of his blood. Where are the other wounds? Was he stabbed? Shot?"

"Not that I could see, Doctor Komori," the nurse replied.

"Don't you think that's a little strange? Was he in some kind of a fight? Did anyone come in with him?"

"No, Doctor. His emergency contact information is in his paperwork if you want to call someone. But he only came in a couple hours ago. We'll need some time to figure out the whole story. I'm sure the coroner will be more help than anyone else at this point."

"Yea. Have the coroner's report emailed to me as soon as you get it, then. I'd like to look into his injuries… See what I can find for… future incidents. We have to make sure this doesn't happen again."

"Of course," she said, laying the sheet back over the man's head. She turned as they started rolling him down the passage to the elevator. She paused and gave Yui a strange look. "We all hate losing people as much as you, Doctor. Please remember that."

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He was at it again.

Ayato paced the foyer relentlessly, as if he meant to wear a hole into the running carpet in front of the grand staircase. Laito eyed him curiously as he leaned against one of the far pillars, wondering if his brother had sensed his presence yet. Or maybe he was too distracted by his own thoughts for now.

"Still coming to terms with your new lover?" Laito asked, filling the silence in the room. He hated waiting to be noticed, anyway.

Ayato looked up and stopped pacing. He frowned and rolled his eyes when he saw who it was. "You never have anything better to do than bother me, huh?"

"Ever since you bonded to that girl, you've been the most entertaining thing around here. So, what can I say? I go where the pleasure is."

"Go take your disgusting fantasies somewhere else. I don't have time for you."

"But the sun's still down," he said with a smirk, "And you're still here."

"I live here, you moron."

"No, what I mean to say is that you're not _there_."

"And why would I be somewhere other than my own home?"

"Stop playing dumb, Ayato," Laito sang. "Why aren't you going to meet with your lover?"

"She's not my lover."

"Your mate, then."

"She's not—" Ayato growled, but then just rolled his eyes again. "And she won't be, okay?" Laito lifted an eyebrow. "She's human…"

"And if she'd been a vampire, she would have begged you to slide right in as soon as she felt you bond, blah, blah, blah. Yes, Ayato. We all know how it works. But it works with humans, too. You slid right in, after all," he giggled.

"Let's say it does," he spat back. "Let's say I go to her and she wants to mate for life. Then what? I bring her home? I'll ask her to meet our _father_?" he laughed. Then his face got serious. "Have _children_?" he spat.

"You'll have to come to terms with this eventually, you know…" Laito said slowly, being serious for once in his life. "You shouldn't view it the way you do." He looked away for a moment, but then glanced back at his blood-brother. "It's already done. You'll be miserable if you let it go on like this. And from what I've heard, it only gets worse. So… just be normal for once."

"And what the fuck is _normal_?" he growled, but he already lost his fire. "My brain already memorized the sound of her heartbeat and it won't stop. It's giving me a headache… Thumping over and over. When she jumps, my skin crawls. When she's nervous or upset, I feel like I'm suffocating. If she's angry, I just… want to _kill_ something! How is that normal?!"

"Embrace it."

" _I did_!" he screamed. "I went to find her! I talked with her! I defended her! I fucked her brains out! It didn't do anything! It never will!"

"I think you're still angry about the fact that she's human," Shuu said, blinking into the room, onto the largest couch. He closed his eyes and listened to the silent hum of music coming through his earbuds. "A human has more meaning than a blood bag when you've bonded to one of them."

"You think I don't know that?" Ayato snarled. He flinched and grabbed at his arm. It must have been her again… Was she getting injured?! God, he hated her. How could something so fragile and small affect him this way? Was he being punished for something?

"If you know it, then what are you so worked up about?"

"She's… _human_ ," he said, disgusted with the word. "This is all just wrong. Vampires should bond to vampires. Humans are _prey_. They're weak and… and _naïve_. They have no place in our world, besides feeding us. When I look at humans, all I see is food. Why should this one be any different? I didn't ask for this. And I certainly didn't want it."

"Careful, Ayato," Reiji said. Ayato snarled when his brothers kept just showing up whenever he talked to one of them. "Your prejudice is showing."

"Oh, please. That's like me saying you're being cruel to your dinner."

"Sometimes I am," Reiji frowned. "But the fact that you view your _mate_ …" He paused to stress the word. "…as _dinner_ … is your first problem."

"Weren't you the one who said I should try drinking from her?" he sneered.

"To strengthen the bond, yes. It'll help her to adjust with more interaction with you, especially physical, such as intercourse or biting her. You could even give her some of your blood."

"That's _disgusting_."

"One way or another, Ayato, you're going to have to deal with this…"

"I'll just have to find someone to kill her for me."

Laito and Reiji rolled their eyes. Shuu remained motionless on the couch.

"Keep in mind that you've already been to see her several times now, and each time you've come back home, you felt fine. You're only stressed at times like these, when you can feel her and you haven't interacted with her recently. I'd bet that if you went to see her now and returned before sunrise, you wouldn't be so on edge. And we wouldn't have to deal with your disrespectful attitude for at least another few hours."

" _No_ ," Ayato growled, getting dangerously close to Reiji's face. He bared his fangs only once before flashing out of the room.

"He's hopeless…" Reiji muttered. "His predisposition towards humans is going to drive him to the edge of sanity. If he doesn't listen to reason, I don't see what else we can do to help him…"

"Well," Laito said with a shrug, "I don't know about you, but I'm going out for a drink. Don't wait up, sunshine."

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"The man had deep punctures on his neck and was drained of blood. Something cut through the skin, tissue and cartilage in one swipe and it's unheard of for any animal or weapon to be able to do that."

Yui frowned, hoping the woman on the other end of the phone line could sense the bad taste in her mouth. That sounded more like fairytales, rather than facts. She'd been hoping that the coroner could tell her something useful. She was sure the police must be all over these murders and fights. They were becoming more and more strange, even for her. She'd seen everything, but… maybe someone on the streets was inventing and selling new kinds of weapons. That was as good of an explanation as any…

"There were also traces of a clear liquid around the punctures, but when the substance was analyzed, it came back as saliva. Although, it wasn't human, and it didn't match any animal DNA. I'm actually not one hundred percent sure what it is, but the closest relation was saliva, so…"

What did that even mean? Maybe it had been contaminated somehow before the man died, or even in the ER. He'd been through a lot since the actual time of the incident, so it wasn't a stretch to say that something else got in the wound. But still… saliva? He could have gone looking for some nighttime company before he was attacked. Or maybe there was a new way of fighting for criminals now.

"Thank you for your time," Yui said, hanging up the phone. The investigators were going to have a field day with this one. It was times like these that she was glad she was in the hospital, and not in charge of figuring out what happened to the people who came in here. All she ever had to do was save lives. Or try to, in most cases.

"If you could limit your personal phone calls while you're on the clock, that would probably be best," a voice called, and Yui turned around in her chair. Misaki Obori stood behind her, across the desk. He wore a tight frown and his arms were crossed. Yui jumped a little. She hadn't spoken much with him since their strange… date.

"Oh, it wasn't personal," she quickly replied.

"Work related? May I ask what it was about, then?"

Yui opened her mouth, but quickly closed it. She couldn't exactly say that she was calling the coroner of the hospital's last patient death. What would Misaki even say if he knew she was calling about things out of her jurisdiction? There was technically no reason to. It had just been her morbid curiosity. She wasn't even sure if that would be good or bad for her image.

"That's what I thought," Misaki groaned. "Get back to work before I fire you."

Yui gave a slight bow from her seat and he walked away. Apparently, he was still mad at her, despite the fact that she thought everything had been going so smoothly… She still found it odd how he dropped her off that night and just seemed to lose interest all of a sudden. She had no complaints, but it wasn't like they would never interact again. He was her boss, after all. She just didn't want him to hold a grudge.

Just then, the front doors slid open and a young woman rushed inside, her eyes darting around frantically. Immediately, Yui stood and walked around the desk.

"Excuse me?" she asked the woman. "Are you okay? Is there an emergency?"

The woman's eyes suddenly darted straight to her and widened. She rushed over, and for a moment, Yui wanted to run away, but the woman held out her hands to her and Yui took them.

"Was he brought in here? Did you see him? He was bleeding everywhere. The ambulance, they left me behind and took him. I went to the police, but no one will listen to me. You have to help me!"

"Calm down," Yui said slowly, but the woman squeezed her hands tighter and she winced. "Ma'm, please let go. You're hurting me—"

"Whoa! What's going on over here?" Misaki suddenly shouted, hurrying over and prying the woman's hands away. He pushed Yui back, somewhat violently, and stood between the two of them. "Who are you and what is your emergency?" he asked her, but the woman's eyes were back to darting around.

"She might be on something," Yui whispered, but Misaki shushed her.

"Go call the police," he said, but the woman snapped back to attention.

"Don't bother! I was just at the station! They won't believe a word I say, so I came here! I need to see my boyfriend right away!"

"Your boyfriend?" Misaki asked, "Does he work here?"

"He was attacked! By a monster! He was brought to this hospital, right? He was wearing blue and jeans and sneakers and his injuries were all over his neck. You must have seen him! I need to speak with him right away! He knows what attacked him and I saw it, too! If he comes with me to the police, they won't think I'm crazy!"

"Yui, just go call 9-1-1, please," Misaki stressed, and Yui just nodded slowly and started heading back to the desk. She reached for the phone and was about to dial, but the woman ran past Misaki and slammed the phone back down onto he receiver and glared at Yui. She froze for a moment, unsure if she was in danger or not.

"I saw what attacked him! It was a monster with sharp teeth! It ripped his throat apart and it latched onto him and wouldn't let go! The police won't believe me, but you will, won't you? You must have seen him come in here! He came to this hospital! I know he did!"

"Will you just call the fucking cops, Yui!" Misaki shouted, storming over and reaching for the phone. The woman didn't try to stop him, but instead focused on Yui. She grabbed her shoulder and shook her.

"I can prove it to you! I have an address! It's where he was attacked! Right here!" She scrambled around the marble countertop until she grabbed a pen and loose-leaf page of something. Yui noticed it as a document she filled out a half hour ago.

"Hey, you can't touch that!" she said, but the woman scribbled down some numbers and words and shoved it at her before she could say anything else.

"If you go there, you'll see that I'm right! The police won't even listen to me, but I'm telling you, this is where he got attacked! This is where—"

"Okay, that's enough out of you!" Misaki said. "I called security. They'll be here any minute now, so I suggest you calm down and wait for the police."

"But I haven't done anything wrong!" she screamed back. "I'm trying to tell you something and you're not even listening to me!"

A few men from downstairs came up in the elevator and started heading for the front desk. The woman was still shouting at Misaki. But the world seemed ominously quiet in that moment. Yui just looked down at the page in her hands, the light scribble of an address written on the back of a signed document for the ER treatment of this woman's boyfriend. She looked up and noticed that no one was looking at her. Misaki and the men that came upstairs were all preoccupied with the woman and her constant shouting.

The coroner's report was fresh in her mind, and the inexplainable things that she said over the phone were still bothering her. And she'd seen it with her own two eyes—when she lifted the sheet covering the corpse's face. She'd seen those marks on his neck, and she read the reports that they made when he arrived in the ambulance…

Yui quietly folded the paper and slid it into her back pocket before anyone noticed.


End file.
